i 


OF  CALIF.  LIBHAOT,  IDS 


The  One  Great  Society 

A  Book  of  Recollections 


By 
FREDERICK  LYNCH,  D.  D. 

Author  of  "The  Challenge"  "The  New  Oppor- 
tunities of  the  Ministry"  "What  Makes  a 
Nation  Great  ?  "  etc.,  etc. 


"  There  is  one  great  society  alone  on  earth, 
the  noble  living  and  the  noble  dead." 

—  Wordsworth, 


NEW    YORK  CHICAGO 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

LONDON  AND  EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  75  Princes  Street 


Introduction 

IT  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  be  thrown  into 
contact  with  great  men  from  earliest  child- 
hood. My  boyhood  home,  in  Peace  Dale,  Ehode 
Island,  was  just  across  the  little  lake  from  the  great 
stone  house  where  lived  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  original  geniuses  America  has  produced,  Row- 
land Gibson  Hazard,  metaphysician  and  manu- 
facturer. He  was  perhaps  the  first  great  man  upon 
whom  my  eyes  ever  fell.  But  not  only  did  I  see  him 
almost  daily  until  I  went  off  to  Yale  College  in  1890, 
I  also  saw  the  guests  who  came  to  his  home.  They 
included  the  authors  and  statesmen  of  America  and 
Europe.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  native 
of  the  little  village  of  Peace  Dale  to  pass  such  men 
as  Herbert  Spencer,  William  Ellery  Channing, 
George  Park  Fisher  and  James  B.  Angell  taking  a 
morning  stroll  about  the  streets.  When  I  was  about 
twelve  I  first  saw  Edward  Everett  Hale  and  I  saw 
him  every  summer  thereafter.  He  had  his  summer 
home  about  four  miles  from  our  house,  and  used 
frequently  to  preach  in  the  village  church. 

I  was  ready  for  college  in  1886,  having  fitted  in 
the  village  high  school,  but  was  unable  to  matricu- 
late until  1890  owing  to  family  reasons.  During 
these  four  years  I  was  in  the  office  of  the  Peace  Dale 
Manufacturing  Company,  and  during  the  last  year 
of  the  four  acted  as  secretary  to  Mr.  Hazard,  then  in 
his  eighty-eighth  year.  But  every  winter  I  took  a 

3 


2131139 


4  INTBODUCTION 

short  vacation,  which  I  spent  in  Boston.  (When, 
ten  years  later,  I  became  pastor  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  Lenox  I  resumed  this  habit  and 
spent  a  month  of  every  year — generally  March — in 
Boston,  where  I  made  good  use  of  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  many  famous  men.)  But  during  these 
visits,  as  a  boy,  I  had  very  happy  times  going  from 
one  preacher  to  another.  I  heard  Phillips  Brooks, 
George  A.  Gordon,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Alexander 
McKenzie,  Charles  F.  Ames,  Francis  G.  Peabody, 
Joseph  Cook  and  many  others.  Not  only  did  I  hear 
them,  but  I  had  long  talks  with  them.  Those  vaca- 
tions were  among  the  most  delightful  days  of  my  life. 
When,  in  1890, 1  went  to  Yale  University  it  was  to 
remain  for  eight  years,  although  I  did  not  know  this 
at  that  time.  They  were  eight  years  of  some  study, 
infinite  reading,  and  much  listening  to  great  men. 
Hardly  a  lecturer  visited  the  great  University  during 
the  eight  years  that  I  was  there — and  almost  every 
scholar,  author  and  famous  preacher  of  America 
came,  as  well  as  distinguished  visitors  from  abroad — 
whom  I  did  not  hear.  I  was  always  as  much  inter- 
ested in  personality  as  in  thought,  and  I  took  pains 
to  seek  out  lecturers  whom  the  average  under- 
graduate or  even  professional  student  never  thought 
of  going  to  see.  I  found  them  invariably  cordial, 
and  I  made  some  friendships  which  persisted  many 
years.  During  my  last  two  years  at  New  Haven 
I  acted  as  assistant  pastor  to  Dr.  Theodore  T. 
Hunger,  of  the  United  Church.  His  home  was  a 
rendezvous  for  famous  men.  Author  as  well  as 
preacher,  he  was  the  intimate  friend  not  only  of 


INTRODUCTION  6 

preachers  but  also  of  poets,  critics  and  scholars.  At 
his  home  one  could  almost  always  find  some  man  of 
international  fame — Ian  Maclaren,  Richard  Watson 
Gilder,  Principal  Fairbairn,  Henry  van  Dyke. 
While  I  was  assistant  at  the  United  Church  the 
evening  services  were  conducted  by  the  Men's 
League  of  the  church,  and  here  again  I  was  brought 
into  contact  with  the  greatest  minds  of  the  time. 
The  aim  of  the  League  was  to  bring  to  the  church 
Sunday  nights  the  most  profound  thinkers  of  the 
day  to  address  the  men  on  some  religious  or  social 
problem.  A  remarkable  succession  of  men  appeared. 
The  League  cooperated  with  the  college  chapel  and 
often  the  college  preacher  of  the  morning  was  the 
speaker  at  the  United  Church  in  the  evening.  Those 
great  congregations  rise  before  me  now  as  they  sat — 
and  stood — hanging  upon  the  words  of  such  men 
as — to  name  those  that  first  rush  to  my  mind — Gor- 
don, Eliot,  Bradford,  Rainsford,  Abbott,  Justice 
Brewer,  Briggs,  van  Dyke,  Gunsaulus,  Bishop  Potter, 
Gladden,  Booker  T.  Washington,  Parkhurst,  Paunce, 
Hyde,  Bishop  Vincent,  Lyman,  Slicer,  Winchester, 
John  Fiske,  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall — and  many  other 
men  equal  in  reputation  to  these.  The  care  of  these 
men  in  some  degree  fell  to  me  as  assistant  pastor.  I 
arranged  the  dates  with  them  and  often  met  them 
upon  their  arrival  in  New  Haven.  I  frequently 
saw  them  at  Dr.  Hunger's  home  on  Saturday  even- 
ings and  listened  to  delightful  talk.  I  often  saw 
them  to  the  hotel  or  the  home  where  they  were  stay- 
ing, and  many  times  I  remained  to  talk. 

In  1898  I  became  pastor  of  the  Congregational 


6  rNTTBODUCTION 

Church  in  Lenox,  Mass.  Here,  whiirmeeting  very 
many  interesting  people  who  came  as  guests  to  the 
great  villas  which  lie  everywhere  on  the  hillsides 
facing  either  Laurel  Lake  or  the  Stockbridge  Bowl, 
I  did  not  come  in  contact  with  so  many  authors, 
publicists  or  preachers.  As  I  said  above,  it  was  my 
habit  to  spend  the  month's  vacation  in  Boston,  and 
there  I  met  and  talked  with  many  interesting  men. 
But  after  five  years  in  Lenox,  years  in  which  I  passed 
the  long  days  of  winter  reading  innumerable  books 
and  the  days  of  summer  in  walks  over  the  delectable 
mountains,  I  came  to  New  York,  to  the  Pilgrim 
Church.  It  was  a  church  with  a  famous  history  and 
a  congregation  of  delightful  people.  Here  I  might 
have  remained  as  long  as  I  did  and,  if  I  had  confined 
myself  to  the  routine  of  parish  duties,  not  have  met 
intimately  many  of  the  great  men  with  whom  I  have 
since  come  intimately  in  contact. 

But  here  again  things  happened  for  which  I  never 
planned.  I  began  writing  a  weekly  page  for  The 
Christian  Work  (which  had  absorbed  The  Evangelist 
and  The  Observer).  One  of  the  editors  died  and  I 
undertook  the  writing  of  the  editorials  until  a  new 
editor  should  be  found.  I  have  continued  writing 
them  ever  since,  and  when,  in  1913,  Dr.  Hallock  died, 
I  bought  the  paper.  As  publisher  of  a  great  re- 
ligious journal  I  have  been  thrown  into  closest  con- 
tact with  the  writers  and  preachers  of  this  land  as 
well  as  of  Europe.  But  another  thing  happened  of 
still  greater  significance  in  this  particular  direction. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  I  preached  some  sermons 
on  international  peace.  I  believed  then,  as  I  do  now, 


DTTROBUCTION  7 

that  there  is  no  reason  why  nations  cannot  settle 
their  disputes  as  do  gentlemen,  by  judicial  processes, 
rather  than  by  guns,  knives,  teeth  and  claws.  These 
sermons  happened  to  reach  the  eyes  of  Albert  K. 
Smiley,  of  Lake  Mohonk,  who  straightway  invited 
me  to  the  next  Conference  on  International  Arbitra- 
tion. I  visited  Lake  Mohonk  the  following  June 
and  found  there  over  three  hundred  of  the  most 
eminent  men  and  women  of  the  United  States.  I 
have  missed  but  one  of  these  conferences  since  that 
time  and  I  have  seen  many  great  men  come  and  go. 
I  returned  from  that  first  conference  very  enthusi- 
astic over  the  possibility  of  substituting  judicial 
processes  for  war  in  the  settlement  of  international 
disputes.  Before  long  four  or  five  of  us,  who  had 
been  at  Lake  Mohonk,  met  and  organized  the  New 
York  Peace  Society.  Among  those  present — we  met 
in  the  chapel  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  Church — 
were  Oscar  S.  Straus,  Samuel  T.  Button,  Ernst 
Richard  (who  had  called  the  meeting),  and  myself. 

We  organized  with  Mr.  Straus  as  president  and 
Professor  Button  as  secretary.  Shortly  afterwards 
Mr.  Straus  was  made  a  member  of  President  Roose- 
velt's Cabinet  and  Mr.  Carnegie  succeeded  him  as 
president  of  the  New  York  Peace  Society.  (My  first 
real  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Carnegie  began  on  the 
day  when,  with  Br.  Lyman  Abbott,  Br.  Charles  E. 
Jefferson  and  Br.  Hamilton  Holt,  I  waited  upon  him 
to  ask  him  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the  New 
York  Peace  Society.  He  was  very  delightful  that 
day  and  talked  as  only  he  can  talk  when  in  a  play- 
ful mood.)  I  became  one  of  the  first  members  of 


8  INTEODUCTION 

the  executive  committee,  and  from  that  day  on  be- 
gan an  intimate  acquaintance  with  many  of  the  lead- 
ing publicists  of  America  and  Europe.  Every  sum- 
mer I  went  to  Europe  to  the  International  Peace 
Congresses,  held  from  year  to  year  in  different  cities 
of  the  continent,  or  in  London.  I  attended  meet- 
ings of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  and  was  also 
present  at  the  Second  Hague  Conference.  In  time  I 
took  part  in  organizing  the  Peace  and  Arbitration 
Commission  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  and 
later,  when  Mr.  Carnegie  committed  $2,000,000  to  a 
board  of  trustees  which  he  called  The  Church  Peace 
Union — the  money  to  be  spent  for  furthering  inter- 
national good  will  through  the  churches — I  became 
its  secretary.  All  of  this  work  has  brought  me  into 
contact  with  the  leaders,  writers  and  prophets  of  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  and  it  has  been  a  source  of 
great  delight. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  my  friends,  from  time  to 
time,  that  I  share  some  of  the  visits  and  talks  with 
these  men,  with  those  who  have  not  been  so  for- 
tunately circumstanced  as  myself.  Finally,  I  have 
consented  to  do  this  upon  solicitation  of  my  pub- 
lishers. The  only  thing  that  has  led  me  to  hesitate 
has  been  modesty.  But,  after  all,  it  has  been  for- 
tune, rather  than  any  particular  merit  of  my  own, 
that  has  so  ordered  my  life  that  I  have  seen  at  close 
range  many  of  the  Lord's  anointed.  Let  me  say  in 
concluding  that  it  seems  wiser,  on  the  whole,  to  con- 
fine these  reminiscences  to  the  dead. 

F.  L. 

New  York. 


Contents 

INTRODUCTION 3 

I.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE    .        .        .11 

II.  PHILLIPS  BROOKS     .  ...       19 

III.  IAN  MACLAREN  (John  Watson)          .       31 

IV.  THEODORE  T.  MUNGER       ...      43 

V.  ROWLAND  GIBSON  HAZARD         .        .      54 

VI.  RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  ...      60 

VII.  GEORGE  P.  FISHER     ....      74 

VIII.  ANDREW  M.  FAIRBAIRN      ...      82 

IX.  BARONESS  BERTHA  VON  SUTTNER        .     ,  95 

X.  "  J.  B."  (Jonathan  Brierley)       .        .     108 

XI.  ROBERT  COLLYER      .        .        .        .116 

XII.  SAMUEL  JUNE  BARROWS      .        .        .128 

XIII.  JOHN  HUNTER 140 

XIV.  AMORY  H.  BRADFORD        .        .        .151 

XV.  EDWARD  JUDSON        .        .        .        .164 

XVI.  CHARLES  SILVESTER  HORNE       .        .176 

XVII.  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON    .        .        .189 

XVIII.  JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE    .        .        .        .198 

XIX.  CHARLES  WAGNER      ....     207 

XX.  WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  218 


9 


EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

MY  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Hale,  as  with  Mr. 
Hazard,  began  in  boyhood.  He  had  a 
summer  home  about  four  miles  from 
Peace  Dale.  It  faced  the  ocean  and  behind  it  rose 
the  Laurel  Hills.  I  do  not  know  that  they  ever  had 
any  other  name.  But  there  were  several  miles  of 
these  hills,  covered  with  laurel,  and  among  them  were 
lakes  around  whose  swampy  shores  grew  acres  of 
rhododendron  trees.  In  the  open  fields  were  great 
patches  of  trailing  arbutus.  As  a  boy  of  fourteen  I 
began  going  to  these  hills  for  arbutus,  and  later,  in 
midsummer,  I  used  to  make  occasional  excursions  to 
the  beach  which  Dr.  Hale's  house  faced.  I  first  saw 
Dr.  Hale  on  this  beach.  He  came  running  down 
across  it  in  a  bathing  suit  and  plunged  into  the  surf. 
He  made  a  striking  figure  with  his  leonine  head,  and 
the  great  mass  of  hair  tossing  in  the  wind.  After 
he  had  been  in  the  surf  a  while  he  rushed  back  to  his 
house.  I  was  greatly  impressed  because  this  was  the 
author  of  "A  Man  Without  a  Country"  and  "In 
His  Name,"  two  stories  at  that  time  very  much  on 
everybody's  lips. 

It  was  two  years  before  I  again  saw  him.    This 
time  it  was  in  the  village  church.    The  pastor  had 

11 


12  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

gone  away  for  a  month's  vacation  and  Dr.  Hale  drove 
over  to  preach  on  the  first  Sunday.  I  knew  him  the 
moment  I  entered  the  church.  I  remember  the  ser- 
mon well.  It  is  one  of  the  first  sermons  that  I  can 
recall.  It  was  on  "Angels."  Every  one  was  an 
angel  who  ran  errands  for  God.  Angels  were  mes- 
sengers of  the  Father  and  the  great  thing  was  to  try 
to  be  an  angel  here — not  to  wait  for  some  other 
world.  It  had  the  simplicity  of  greatness.  After 
the  service  I  happened  to  be  among  those  whom  he 
greeted,  and  I  told  him  how  much  I  had  enjoyed  his 
story  "In  His  Name."  I  never  dreamed  as  he  went 
away  that  some  day  out  in  the  great  world  I  was  to 
work  in  intimate  relation  with  him.  Indeed,  I  did 
not  know  then  that  I  was  ever  going  out  into  the 
great  world. 

During  the  next  few  years  before  I  went  to  col- 
lege I  saw  him  occasionally  and  I  always  went  to 
hear  him  preach  in  his  church — the  South  Church — 
on  my  winter  trips  to  Boston.  Sometimes  I  spoke 
to  him  and  he  remembered  me  as  coming  from  Peace 
Dale.  Then  I  went  to  college  and  for  many  years 
I  did  not  visit  Peace  Dale  except  for  short  stays. 
While  I  was  at  Yale  he  came  to  New  Haven  only 
once.  It  was  to  preach  in  a  special  series  of  sermons 
being  offered  by  a  small  group  of  Unitarians  in  a 
little  hall  in  Chapel  Street,  near  the  University. 
The  hall  was  overcrowded,  and  I  had  to  stand  in  a 
corner,  pinned  against  the  wall.  This  time  it  was  a 
presentation  of  the  liberal  gospel  and  the  three 
phrases  continually  on  his  lips  were  Fatherhood  of 
God,  Abundant  Life,  Brotherhood  of  Man.  The 


EDWABD  EVEEETT  HALE  13 

sermon  made  a  profound  impression  on  me,  and  for 
many  days  I  could  not  escape  it.  When,  eight  years 
afterwards,  I  began  going  to  Boston  for  a  month 
each  winter,  while  I  was  pastor  of  the  Lenox  Con- 
gregational Church,  I  renewed  the  old  acquaintance, 
and  used  frequently  to  hear  him  preach. 

It  was  when  I  began  to  go  to  Lake  Mohonk,  to  the 
annual  Conferences  on  International  Arbitration, 
that  I  began  to  have  long  talks  with  him.  He  was 
for  many  years  very  prominent  at  these  Conferences. 
It  was  he  who  brought  down  the  ridicule  of  the  Con- 
ference upon  himself  by  prophesying  that  before  he 
died  all  the  governments  of  the  world  would  be  to- 
gether in  a  peace  conference.  The  idea  was  as  fan- 
tastic even  to  that  group  of  peace  experts  as  a 
prophecy  of  immediate  disarmament  would  have 
been.  But  it  was  not  three  years  after  Dr.  Hale's 
remarkable  utterance  that  the  Czar  called  the  na- 
tions together  at  The  Hague.  Dr.  Hale  was  always 
a  generation  ahead  of  the  people.  He  was  a  true 
prophet — a  prophet  in  looks  too,  for  he  had  the  head 
and  eyes  of  a  seer.  His  voice  was  also  authoritative. 
He  was  always  prophesying  things  that  came  to  pass 
not  many  years  afterwards.  This  was  what  made 
him  so  interesting  a  preacher.  It  is  what  makes 
any  preacher  interesting. 

One  of  the  first  long  talks  I  ever  had  with  him  was 
on  preaching.  I  was  sitting  on  the  porch  of  the 
Lake  Mohonk  House  after  a  morning  session.  Dr. 
Hale  came  out  with  his  old  slouch  hat  on  and  with  a 
staff  in  his  hand.  "I'm  off  for  an  hour's  walk; 
come  along,"  he  said  as  he  passed  me.  I  joined  him 


14  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

and  he  talked  to  me  for  an  hour  without  stopping  to 
breathe.  I  got  much  fatherly  advice.  I  was  just 
beginning  my  ministry ;  he  had  been  preaching  forty 
years  and  more.  I  recall  some  of  his  words  very 
well.  He  was  talking  about  preachers.  He  was 
very  brusque:  ''The  trouble  with  the  average 
preacher  is  that  he  has  no  gospel.  There  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  going  up  into  a  pulpit  unless  you  have  got 
a  gospel  you  want  to  shout  to  the  people.  Most  min- 
isters go  up  timidly  saying,  'I  will  tell  you  what 
some  one  said  three  thousand  years  ago,'  or  'Let  me 
explain  this  verse  of  Scripture  to  you,'  or  'Let  me 
raise  this  question  of  Miracles  with  you.'  The  real 
preacher  gets  his  message  straight  from  God  and  goes 
up  into  the  pulpit  and  shouts :  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
and  thus  say  I.'  The  result  is  people  listen.  The 
newer  the  message  the  harder  they  listen.  The  first 
thing  a  young  minister  ought  to  do  is  to  get  his 
gospel.  The  divinity  schools  teach  him  all  the  gos- 
pels of  the  past  and  it  is  good  to  know  them.  Then 
he  must  get  his  own  gospel,  and  he  can't  preach  until 
he  gets  it.  When  he  has  got  it  let  him  speak  it  night 
and  day,  fearing  nothing  except  God." 

Dr.  Hale  delivered  himself  of  all  this  and  much 
more  with  great  gusto,  and  I  had  only  to  ask  one 
question  to  start  him  off  again.  I  think  I  knew  his 
views  about  the  ministry  pretty  well  before  we  got 
back  to  the  hotel.  He  thought  the  younger  genera- 
tion of  ministers  would  be  more  prophetic  because 
they  were  touching  life  more  closely.  The  older 
ministers  knew  the  thought  of  the  day  and  knew  men 
in  their  homes.  They  did  not,  however,  get  so  closely 


EDWAED  EVEEETT  HALE  15 

in  touch  with  the  great  social  movements  as  'did  the 
younger  ministers.  And  this  touch  with  the  people 
would  humanize  their  gospel. 

This  word  "humanize  the  gospel"  leads  me  to 
record  another  conversation  on  this  same  theme. 
Dr.  Hale  was  at  Mohonk  every  spring  and  some- 
times in  the  autumn,  and  I  had  many  talks  with 
him.  I  drew  him  out  on  theology,  charity — he  was 
one  of  the  inspirers  of  the  whole  charitable  move- 
ment in  this  country,  and  his  "Lend-a-Hand  So- 
ciety" was  a  darling  child — peace,  the  labour  prob- 
lem, the  future  of  the  Church,  and  many  other 
themes.  He  believed  in  philosophy  and  theology, 
for  he  was,  of  course,  a  scholar,  and  his  great  brain 
ranged  through  all  fields.  But  he  was  impatient  of 
confounding  theology  with  the  gospel:  "The  gospel 
is  a  fact  and  the  simplest  fact  in  all  the  world,"  he 
said  in  the  conversation  to  which  I  refer.  "The 
preacher's  task  is  to  proclaim  this  fact.  And  this 
fact  is  that  we  are  all  in  the  hands  of  the  good 
Father,  we  are  all  His  children  and  nothing  can 
really  harm  us  either  here  or  in  eternity.  The 
Father  gives  us  life,  abundant  life.  Because  we  are 
all  His  children  we  are  brothers  and  should  love  one 
another.  This  is  the  gospel — the  whole  of  it — sim- 
ple as  the  relationship  of  parent  and  child — and  as 
great.  The  duty  of  the  Christian  is  to  love  God  and 
man,  and  to  let  the  Father  love  him  and  keep  him. 
Little  children  are  the  only  real  Christians.  Those 
of  us  who  live  as  children  are  the  happy  ones." 

Here  one  got  rather  close  to  the  secret  of  Dr. 
Sale's  life,  I  think.  He  was  as  a  little  child  unto 


16  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

the  end.  He  was  full  of  play.  He  was  almost 
boisterous  in  his  youth  even  when  in  the  eighties. 
He  greeted  the  morning  with  a  shout.  He  prayed 
with  the  directness  of  a  child.  Who  will  ever  forget 
those  prayers  in  the  Lake  Mohonk  parlours  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  day.  How  they  harmonized  with  the 
exquisite  picture  of  mountain,  lake  and  trees,  seen 
through  the  great  window  behind  him.  His  preach- 
ing always  had  this  directness  in  it,  this  childlike- 
ness.  One  recalls  that  passage  in  Emerson's  Divinity 
School  Address,  where  he  looked  out  of  the  church 
window  at  the  beauty  of  the  world — it  was  snow- 
ing— and  said:  "The  snow-storm  was  real,  the 
preacher  merely  spectral.  .  .  .  He  had  lived  in 
vain.  He  had  no  one  word  intimating  that  he  had 
laughed  or  wept,  was  married  or  in  love,  had  been 
commended,  cheated,  or  chagrined.  If  he  had  ever 
lived  and  acted  we  were  none  the  wiser  for  it.  The 
capital  secret  of  his  profession,  namely,  to  convert 
life  into  truth,  he  had  not  learned.  Not  one  fact 
in  all  his  experience  had  he  ever  imported  into  his 
doctrine.  .  .  .  The  true  preacher  can  be  known 
by  this,  that  he  deal  out  to  the  people  his  life — life 
passed  through  the  fire  of  thought."  I  have  quoted 
this  somewhat  at  length  because  it  describes  just 
what  Dr.  Hale  was  not.  Reality  was  the  one  out- 
standing thing  about  him,  with  youth.  Indeed  I 
once  heard  him  say:  "Whether  you  write  your  ser- 
mon or  simply  talk  it,  let  it  always  be  talked  to  the 
people.  Tell  them  something." 

Speaking  of  Dr.  Bale's  youthfulness,  one  of  the 
most  moving  scenes  I  ever  witnessed  was  at  the  great 


EDWAED  EVEEETT  HALE  17 

dinner  of  the  National  Arbitration  and  Peace  Con- 
gress in  the  Hotel  Astor  in  April,  1907.  Mr.  Car- 
negie was  presiding  and,  after  Lord  Bryce  had 
spoken,  he  called  upon  Dr.  Hale.  He  introduced 
him  as  "The  Grand  Old  Man  of  the  Republic." 
There  was  great  applause  and  Dr.  Hale  was  splen- 
did. He  thrilled  the  great  audience  as  he  spoke 
prophetically  of  the  meaning  of  The  Hague  Con- 
ferences. While  he  was  speaking  Baron  d'Estour- 
nelles  de  Constant,  the  eminent  French  senator,  who 
had  been  speaking  at  the  companion  banquet  at  the 
"Waldorf-Astoria,  came  in  and  stood  by  the  door, 
spellbound.  He  was  called  upon  to  speak  when  Dr. 
Hale  had  finished.  The  first  thing  he  said  was:  "I 
can  tell  you  that  I  shall  go  back  to  my  country  full 
of  faith,  full  of  certainty  for  the  future.  After  I 
arrived  here  to-night  I  witnessed  the  sight  of  a  most 
respected  and  great  old  man  speaking  like  a  young 
man.  ...  I  think  you  will  allow  me  to  say,  as 
a  foreigner  who  came  here  yesterday,  and  who  will 
be  gone  to-morrow,  that  it  was  a  fine  sight  to  see  in 
your  great  country  an  old  man  speaking  like  a 
young  man,  speaking  of  the  future." 

I  made  every  effort  to  get  to  Boston  when  they 
celebrated  Dr.  Hale's  eightieth  birthday  in  Sym- 
phony Hall  with  music  and  with  speeches,  but  I 
could  not  go.  I  did,  however,  hear  one  of  the  last 
addresses  he  made.  It  was  before  the  League  for 
Political  Education  in  New  York.  Age  was  be- 
ginning to  tell  upon  his  body.  One  could  see  that 
he  tottered  a  little  as  he  walked  to  the  speaker's  desk. 
But  when  he  began  to  speak  it  was  with  all  the  flame 


18  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

of  youth.  The  lecture  was  a  glowing  prophecy  of 
the  America  that  was  to  come  from  the  merging  of 
the  races  that  were  here.  This  was  the  last  time  I 
saw  him,  at  a  little  gathering  after  his  lecture.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  some  one  asked  him  how  he  kept 
so  young,  how  he  continued  to  do  ten  men's  work. 
He  said,  what  he  had  said  before:  "Every  morning 
when  I  get  up  I  say,  'You  are  a  child  of  God,'  and 
I  open  my  heart  to  God  and  the  power  conies  in. 
All  is  ours,  for  we  are  God's  children."  There  one 
has  the  secret  of  Dr.  Hale's  eternal  youth — a  child 
walking  with  the  Father. 


n 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS 

ONE  of  the  pleasures  of  writing  these  remi- 
niscences is  that  it  causes  one  to  live  over 
again  certain  delightful  moments.  Thus, 
as  I  start  to  write  about  Phillips  Brooks,  I  am  back 
again,  an  eager  youth,  in  Copley  Square,  Boston,  on 
the  steps  of  Trinity  Church,  on  a  never-to-be-for- 
gotten Easter  morning.  The  glory  and  thrill  of 
that  wonderful  day !  I  had  left  the  little  hotel  where 
in  those  days  I  was  accustomed  to  spend  a  week 
every  winter  when  I  took  my  vacation  from  office 
work  and  ran  off  to  Boston  for  a  feast  of  symphonies 
and  sermons.  (This  was  before  I  went  to  college 
and  while  I  was  in  the  office  of  the  Peace  Dale  Manu- 
facturing Company.)  It  was  always  a  great  week. 
For  there  were  sure  to  be  many  services  during  Holy 
Week  at  which  I  could  hear  the  Boston  preachers, 
and  there  was  beautiful  music  in  the  churches  as  well 
as  the  symphony  concerts.  And  Easter  came  as  the 
crown  of  it  all.  I  always  sought  Trinity  early 
Easter  morning,  for  the  throngs  began  gathering 
hours  before  the  service.  On  this  Easter  morning 
my  youthful  heart  was  throbbing  with  excitement. 
It  was  to  be  my  first  sight  of  Phillips  Brooks — my 
first  hearing  of  him.  To  one  who  had  pored  over 
every  word  he  had  ever  published,  knew  his  several 

19 


20  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

volumes  of  sermons  almost  by  heart,  had  read  every- 
thing that  had  ever  been  written  about  him,  and  had 
come  to  make  him  a  hero  with  a  sort  of  mystical 
glamour  about  him,  this  was  the  great  day,  when  at 
last  I  could  see  him  face  to  face  and  hear  him  preach. 
I  reached  the  church  fully  an  hour  and  a  quarter 
before  the  time  of  service.  Already  a  hundred  peo- 
ple were  waiting  upon  the  steps,  and  they  were  com- 
ing from  every  direction,  I  managed  to  get  near  the 
doors  and  felt  content,  for  I  was  assured  of  ad- 
mission. It  was  not  uninteresting  to  stand  facing 
Copley  Square  for  an  hour.  Across  the  way  to  the 
right  was  the  beautiful  Campanile  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  in  Boston, 
but  having  nothing  to  do  with  Boston,  being  pure 
Italian.  (I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  out  of  place  in 
Boston.  It  is  not,  for  although  Boston  is  the  home 
of  Puritanism,  its  Puritanism  has  sat  somewhat 
lightly  upon  it,  and  the  arts,  music,  poetry  and 
romance  have  found  their  home  there,  while  to-day 
its  streets  swarm  with  those  whose  blood  is  Gaelic, 
Celtic  and  Latin  rather  than  Puritan.)  Directly 
facing  Trinity  Church  was  the  new  Public  Library, 
with  its  massive  and  noble  front,  and  one  saw  again 
in  memory  Abbey's  wonderful  paintings  of  the  Grail 
story,  upon  which  one  had  feasted  the  day  before. 
It  was  also  interesting  to  watch  the  throngs  hasten- 
ing to  the  churches.  Many  were  going  to  the  Old 
South,  for  its  preacher,  too,  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon, 
was  admired  of  many.  (I  was  later  to  come  under 
his  spell,  and  that  very  Sunday  evening  I  heard  him 
for  the  first  time.)  Meantime  the  throng  on  Trinity 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  21 

steps  had  increased  to  several  hundred.  The  police 
made  a  passage  through  the  crowds  for  the  regular 
members  of  the  parish,  and  then,  precisely  at  the 
stroke  of  the  bell,  the  doors  were  thrown  open  to  the 
public.  I  hurried  up  into  the  gallery  at  the  right 
and  found  a  seat  directly  opposite  the  pulpit,  which 
is,  as  my  readers  will  remember,  at  the  left  hand 
intersection  of  the  choir  and  transept  of  the  church. 
Most  of  the  service  was  taken  by  the  assistants,  but 
Dr.  Brooks  read  the  Scriptures.  I  had  not  realized 
before  how  big  he  was,  although  I  had  seen  many 
pictures  of  him  and  had  often  read  stories  about  his 
size.  Many  of  these  stories  were  probably  apocry- 
phal but  they  were  interesting.  The  two  that  were 
most  often  told  were  these :  Dr.  Brooks,  Dr.  McVickar 
(afterwards  Bishop  of  Ehode  Island),  and  Richard- 
son, the  famous  architect  and  builder  of  Trinity 
Church,  visited  England  together.  They  were  all 
three  huge  men — each  one  six  feet  and  four  inches 
and  correspondingly  big.  It  is  said  that  they  at- 
tended a  lecture  in  an  English  town,  by  an  English- 
man who  had  been  travelling  in  America.  In  the 
course  of  his  lecture  he  remarked  that  the  average 
American  was  on  the  whole  smaller  than  the  average 
Englishman,  as  they  would  immediately  observe  if 
they  saw  groups  of  Americans  and  Englishmen  to- 
gether. Whereupon  these  three  giant  Americans 
arose,  to  the  consternation  of  the  lecturer  and  the 
amazement  of  the  audience,  and  said:  "We  are 
Americans." — The  other  story  was  that  when  Dr. 
Brooks  landed  in  Japan  one  of  the  newspapers  re- 
marked that,  "he  made  more  impression  upon  Japan 


22  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

than  any  other  American  who  had  stepped  upon  its 
shores." 

He  was  a  big  man  and  as  he  stood  at  the  lectern 
reading  I  realized,  as  never  before,  how  he  and  his 
gospel  went  together.  For  his  gospel  was  big, 
healthy,  abundant.  It  was  "fullness  of  life,"  a 
phrase  he  was  always  using.  He  might  have  summed 
up  his  ministry  in  the  words  of  his  Master:  "I  am 
come  that  they  might  have  life  and  have  it  more 
abundantly."  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  man's  ca- 
pacity for  this  life.  Every  man  was  to  him  the  child 
of  God,  and  if  he  denied  it  he  was  no  less  a  child. 
All  things  were  his  and  religion  was  the  discovery 
and  appropriation  of  everything  big  and  beautiful 
and  noble  in  the  world.  It  may  be  wondered  if  Dr. 
Brooks  ever  quite  realized  the  awful  sinfulness  and 
weakness  of  some  men's  lives,  the  nature  with  which 
some  men  are  born.  To  him  nobility  perhaps  came 
a  little  too  naturally  for  him  quite  to  understand  the 
great  underworld.  But  to  aspiring  youth  and 
struggling  men  and  women  he  made  life  a  thing  of 
beauty,  a  great,  wonderful,  heroic  thing,  capable  of 
being  lived  along  high  lines,  an  achievement  possible 
of  attainment  if  one  clung  to  his  great  captain, 
Christ. 

The  sermon  that  Easter  morning  was  a  very  good 
illustration  of  just  this  thing.  It  dealt  not  so  much 
with  resurrection  from  the  grave  into  the  future 
world  as  the  passing  now  from  empty,  meagre,  im- 
poverished life,  life  that  was  death,  into  the  large, 
full,  radiant,  resurrection-life  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
was  wonderful  preaching  and  I  was  as  a  reed  before 


PHILLIPS  BEOOKS  23 

it.  The  great  preacher  ascended  into  the  pulpit,  and 
immediately  began  pouring  forth  a  flood  of  torrential 
speech,  with  a  rapidity  of  utterance  such  as  I  had 
never  heard  before — have  never  heard  since.  (John 
Haynes  Holmes,  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  New 
York  City,  has  something  of  the  same  fervid,  onrush- 
ing  eloquence  that  characterized  Dr.  Brooks,  and 
others  have  noticed  this  same  similarity  as  well  as  I.) 
It  took  me  a  few  moments  to  realize  just  what  had 
happened,  and  to  catch  up  with  the  preacher.  This 
was  an  experience  common  to  many  who  heard  him 
for  the  first  time.  Very  few  people  were  accus- 
tomed to  travelling  through  thought  at  such  speed. 
Some  dear  people  never  could  keep  up  with  him 
and  abandoned  the  attempt  as  hopeless.  But  to 
eager  and  impetuous  minds  he  was  a  satisfaction  and 
a  joy.  Furthermore,  the  sermons  were  always  so 
direct,  lucid  and  real  that  he  was  not  difficult  to 
follow  even  in  his  most  impetuous  moments,  when 
one  had  adjusted  one's  mind  to  the  tremendous 
speed.  It  made  no  difference  as  to  impetuosity  of 
utterance,  whether  he  read  or  spoke.  Unless  one 
was  near  enough  to  the  pulpit  to  see  the  sudden  turn 
of  the  written  page  it  was  difficult  to  tell  whether  he 
was  reading  or  speaking  extemporaneously.  Per- 
haps this  was  partly  due  to  the  legibility  of  the 
handwriting.  He  wrote  a  really  beautiful  hand,  as 
flowing  as  the  style  it  expressed.  I  have  three  or 
four  of  his  letters  among  my  treasures  and  whenever 
I  show  them,  my  friends  invariably  comment  on  the 
handwriting.  In  the  later  years  of  his  ministry  he 
generally  spoke  extemporaneously.  There  was  gain 


24  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

here,  for  one  got  the  effect  of  his  eyes,  which  were 
very  expressive  and  beautiful.  But  the  inevitable 
effect  of  the  preaching  of  Phillips  Brooks  was  a 
state  of  exaltation.  It  was  Dr.  Hunger  who  once 
remarked  to  me  that  Phillips  Brooks  "  lifted  up  his 
hearers  and  surrounded  them  with  a  cloud  of  glory. ' ' 
It  is  a  true  characterization  of  the  effect.  But  this 
is  not  to  say  that  he  did  not  stimulate  the  mind.  The 
occasional  hint  that  the  intellectual  element  was 
lacking  in  his  preaching  is  far  from  the  truth.  Be- 
cause he  did  not  talk  much  about  theology  and 
philosophy  is  no  sign  of  his  lack  of  interest  in  these 
things.  He  had  read  and  read  widely  and  the  in- 
tellectual element  is  robust,  virile  and  positive.  It 
is  simply  that  the  framework  of  his  thought  was 
invested  with  such  exquisite  robes  of  feeling  that 
the  total  effect  was  an  appeal  to  the  whole  man. 
But  he  was  much  more  of  a  poet  than  a  theologian. 
He  knew  all  the  great  poets  by  heart  and  had  made 
them  his  own.  The  poetic  impulse  breathed  through 
all  his  writing  and  preaching.  He  wrote  little  but 
sermons,  as  his  chief  joy  and  interest  was  in  preach- 
ing, but  when  he  did  attempt  an  essay  or  an  address 
it  was  always  a  notable  production.  His  eight 
lectures  on  preaching,  delivered  in  the  Lyman 
Beecher  course  at  Yale  University,  still  remain 
among  the  most  notable  in  a  series  in  which  the 
greatest  preachers  have  participated  for  forty  years. 
On  three  of  four  occasions  the  poetic  impulse  in 
him  burst  into  song  and  the  fruit  of  one  of  these 
impulses  at  one  Christmas  Time  was  the  exquisitely 
beautiful  carol  beginning 


PHILLIPS  BKOOKS  25 

"  O  little  town  of  Bethlehem 
How  still  we  see  thee  lie." 

This  carol  is  real  poetry,  and  has  taken  its  place 
among  the  classics.  (It  will  be  remembered  by  all 
readers  of  Professor  Allen's  great  biography  that 
Phillips  Brooks  wrote  much  verse  in  his  youth,  con- 
siderable of  which  is  present  in  the  biography.)  I 
remember  so  well  the  glow  in  my  heart  as  I  came 
from  the  church  that  Easter  morning.  The  preacher 
had  made  all  things  new.  It  will  be  remembered 
how  Lowell  relates  that  walking  home  in  the  winter 
night  from  hearing  Emerson  lecture  the  stars  burned 
supernaturally  big  and  bright.  This  was  the  effect 
of  Phillips  Brooks  upon  young  men.  He  made  life 
new  and  fascinating,  made  the  world  new,  full  of 
beauty  and  of  promise.  He  filled  the  heart  of  youth 
with  courage  and  with  vision  of  wonderful,  mystic 
things  brooding  over  the  common  life  of  the  city. 

For  several  years  I  visited  Boston  every  winter 
and  always  heard  Phillips  Brooks  and  Edward 
Everett  Hale.  Then  I  went  off  to  New  Haven  to 
college.  For  two  or  three  years  I  did  not  hear 
either.  But  one  day  there  was  great  excitement  in 
the  college  when  it  was  announced  that  Phillips 
Brooks  would  speak  in  Battell  Chapel  at  five  o'clock 
on  one  of  the  afternoons  of  the  week — I  forget  which. 
He  had  been  caught  on  the  wing,  as  it  were,  be- 
tween New  York  and  Boston.  The  chapel  was 
crowded  when  the  hour  came.  To  most  of  the  boys 
he  was  a  source  of  wonder.  They  had  heard  of  him 
in  that  vague  way  in  which  one  hears  of  great  men 
whom  one  has  never  met,  but  they  had  no  idea  of  the 


26  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

sort  of  man  he  was.  Consequently  they  were  quite 
dazed  when  this  huge  man,  with  the  modesty  and  sim- 
plicity of  a  child,  arose  before  them  and  began  pour- 
ing forth  words  in  quiet,  almost  conversational  tone. 
But  the  spell  of  his  personality  was  upon  them  in  a 
few  moments,  and  as  his  voice  rose  in  pitch  (it  was 
never  loud,  although  full,  resonant  and  of  carrying 
power),  they  were  soon  hanging  upon  his  words. 
The  preacher,  standing  in  the  gathering  dusk  of  the 
chapel  with  only  one  light  burning,  and  that  beside 
his  silvered  head,  really  exercised  a  hypnotic  in- 
fluence upon  the  vast  throng  of  boys.  He  spoke  for 
about  forty  minutes  on  "True  Freedom."  (It  was 
practically  the  sermon  of  that  title  which  he  preached 
in  the  Lenten  Series  at  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 
which  attracted  much  attention.)  Freedom  was  a 
common  subject  of  his  preaching.  The  five  sermons 
which  he  preached  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 
during  Lent,  all  bear  the  verse  in  John  "Ye  shall 
know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free" 
at  their  beginning,  and  they  were  afterwards  pub- 
lished under  the  title  "Perfect  Freedom."  The 
underlying  thought  of  the  sermon  in  Battell  Chapel 
was  that  man  is  a  nobler  being  than  he  ordinarily 
conceives  himself  to  be  and  is  meant  for  a  grander 
and  nobler  life  than  he  commonly  lives.  But  he  is 
restrained  and  imprisoned  by  circumstance  and  by 
a  false  conception  of  religious  restraint.  But  when 
we  turn  to  Christ  there  is  nothing  of  restraint  in 
His  life  or  His  teachings.  It  is  all  fullness  of  life 
and  liberty.  He  was  forever  teaching  that  man  "to 
become  his  completest  must  become  his  freest,  that 


PHILLIPS  BBOOKSj  27 

what  a  man  did  when  he  entered  into  the  new  life 
was  to  open  up  a  new  region  in  which  new  powers 
were  to  find  their  exercise,  in  which  he  was  to  be 
able  to  be  and  do  things  which  he  could  not  be  and 
do  in  a  more  restricted  life."  To  accept  Christ,  the 
one  absolutely  free  man  of  history,  was  to  find  not 
the  imprisonment  but  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
soul.  The  young  men  came  forth  from  the  sermon 
with  a  seriousness  on  their  faces  I  have  seldom  seen 
in  college  boys. 

In  1893  Phillips  Brooks  gave  a  series  of  five  or 
six  sermons  in  Trinity  Church,  at  the  head  of  Wall 
Street,  in  New  York,  during  the  Lenten  season.  I 
was  then  a  student  in  Yale  College,  but  I  could  not 
resist  running  away  to  New  York  to  hear  one  of  these 
sermons  by  my  hero.  It  was  an  experience  never 
to  be  forgotten.  The  services  were  open  to  men 
only.  On  the  day  I  attended,  the  crowds  that  tried 
to  get  into  the  church  far  exceeded  its  capacity.  I 
was  among  the  earliest,  but  even  then  I  had  to  stand. 
There  was  no  service — simply  a  collect  or  two  at 
twelve  and  then  the  half -hour  sermon.  The  congre- 
gation was  mostly  composed  of  business  men  from 
the  neighbourhood,  and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
more  ideal  preaching  for  men.  The  topics  were 
such  as  these:  "The  Beauty  of  a  Life  of  Service," 
"Thought  and  Action,"  "The  Duty  of  the  Chris- 
tian Business  Man,"  "True  Liberty"  and  "The 
Christ  in  Whom  Christians  Believe. ' '  They  were  re- 
ported stenographically — I  pity  the  stenographer — 
and  were  afterwards  published  in  a  little  volume, 
"Perfect  Freedom."  They  were  published  against 


28  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

his  will  and  he  made  a  very  decided  protest  against 
their  appearance.  If  I  remember  rightly  he  tried 
to  stop  their  publication.  He  had  a  great  sense  of 
literary  form  and  he  felt  that  these  sermons,  having 
been  most  informal  and  confidential  talks,  would  lose 
their  power  in  print.  He  was  mistaken  there,  as  I 
afterwards  told  him,  adding  that  I  was  glad,  for  the 
sake  of  the  world,  that  the  piratical  publishers  got 
the  best  of  him.  He  really  gives  the  heart  of  his 
gospel  in  this  collection  as  perhaps  in  no  other  of 
his  volumes.  I  feel  sorry  for  the  preacher  who 
has  not  read  them.  It  was  a  rare  experience  to  see 
those  eager  faces  of  bankers  and  brokers  upturned 
to  his,  to  see  that  crowd  of  business  men  hanging 
upon  the  words  of  this  prophet  and  poet. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  a  few  memorable 
hours  with  him  alone  just  a  week  before  he  died. 
I  was  a  senior  at  Yale  College,  and  was  turning  to- 
wards the  ministry  as  my  vocation.  An  opening 
had  loomed  up  to  teach  English  literature  in  one  of 
our  colleges.  I  was  somewhat  undecided  in  my  mind 
which  path  to  take.  I  wrote  him  asking  his  advice. 
He  wrote  back  immediately  to  come  and  spend  a 
night  with  him  in  Boston  and  talk  it  over.  It  need 
not  be  said  that  I  accepted  the  invitation  eagerly; 
but  when  the  time  came  that  I  could  go,  he  had 
every  night  filled  with  confirmations — he  was  then 
Bishop  of  Massachusetts — and  he  asked  me  to  come 
and  have  lunch  with  him  and  spend  the  afternoon. 
I  had  three  uninterrupted  hours  with  him  and  he 
asked  me  more  questions  than  I  asked  him.  He  was 
most  eager  to  learn  about  the  interest  of  college  men 


PHILLIPS  BEOOKS  29 

in  religion,  and  about  the  preaching  in  the  college 
chapel.  I  had  been  quite  actively  identified  with  the 
religious  life  of  the  University  and  could  tell  him  a 
good  deal  about  it.  As  to  the  college  preaching  I 
told  him  that  what  was  lacking  in  many  sermons 
was  the  note  of  reality,  and  he  agreed  with  me. 
The  greatest  failures  in  the  college  pulpit  were  the 
men  who  tried  to  be  funny  and  those  who  insisted 
on  taking  illustrations  from  athletics.  (The  inevi- 
table result  of  so  much  reference  to  athletics  in  a 
college  pulpit  is  to  give  the  students  the  impression 
that  the  preacher  thinks  they  care  for  nothing  else.) 
I  also  told  him  that  the  preacher  who  had  read  a 
formal  sermon  in  the  chapel  in  the  morning  invari- 
ably got  closer  to  the  students  in  his  direct  talk  to 
them  in  the  informal  service  in  Dwight  Hall  in  the 
evening.  But  after  a  while  I  got  opportunity  to  ask 
my  questions.  He  plunged  into  a  plea  for  the  min- 
istry as  the  greatest  opportunity  that  was  open  for  a 
young  man  to  realize  his  fullest  self  and  to  influence 
his  generation.  He  believed  that  the  opportunities 
for  the  preacher  with  a  real  message  were  even 
greater  than  they  had  been.  He  also  thought  there 
was  no  life  so  full  of  real  joys  and  satisfaction  as  the 
ministry,  he  thought  the  great  days  of  the  Church 
were  ahead  of  her  if  she  could  only  realize  her  real 
mission  of  giving  life  and  light  to  the  world.  He 
thought  the  great  danger  was  that  the  Church  would 
spend  her  energies  in  doing  what  other  agencies  were 
doing  and  could  do  as  well,  and  would  forget  her  real 
mission  of  keeping  the  sense  of  God  alive  in  the 
world,  of  convincing  man  that  he  was  a  child  of 


30  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

God,  and  could  not  realize  his  real  life  apart  from 
Him.  After  luncheon  we  sat  for  two  hours  before 
the  fire  in  his  beautiful  library.  He  began  talking 
about  Frederick  W.  Robertson  and  his  indebtedness 
to  him,  and  told  me  of  his  pilgrimage  to  Brighton. 
He  then  told  me  of  the  books  that  had  shaped  his 
thought,  and  insisted  that  I  should  live  in  Maurice, 
Robertson,  Bushnell  and  the  poets.  They  had  got 
at  the  real  heart  of  Christ.  It  was  a  wonderful 
afternoon.  Many  and  many  a  time  since  then  I 
have  congratulated  myself  that  I  went  when  I  did. 
For,  ten  days  after  my  visit,  he  lay  silent  in  that 
same  study,  having  passed  away  almost  while  preach- 
ing his  great  gospel  of  the  abundant  life  natural  and 
possible  to  man  because  he  was  a  child  of  God. 


Ill 

IAN  MACLAREN 
(JOHN  WATSON) 

MY  acquaintance  with  John  Watson,  of 
Liverpool,  began  as,  I  suppose,  did  that 
of  thousands  of  other  Americans,  with 
the  appearance  of  " Beside  the  Bonnie  Brier  Bush." 
Always  fond  of  everything  relating  to  Scotland, 
having  been  reared  on  Walter  Scott,  Hugh  Miller 
and  Thomas  Edwards,  and  having  read  the  biogra- 
phies of  Thomas  Chalmers  and  Norman  Macleod,  I 
seized  upon  the  writings  of  Barrie,  Crockett  and 
Ian  Maclaren  as  they  appeared,  and  read  each  at 
one  sitting.  I  can  live  over  again  the  days,  the 
places,  the  impressions,  everything  connected  with 
my  first  reading  on  Sunday  afternoons,  of  "The 
Window  in  Thrums,"  "The  Little  Minister,"  "The 
Sticket  Minister,"  and  "Beside  the  Bonnie  Brier 
Bush." 

I  never  saw  Ian  Maclaren  until  he  came  to  Yale 
University  to  deliver  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  on 
Preaching  before  the  Divinity  School.  The  method 
of  his  coming  was  interesting.  Probably  not  a  dozen 
people  in  America  had  ever  heard  of  Dr.  Watson 
before  his  stories  took  the  world  by  storm.  After 
Ian  Maclaren  was  known  in  every  household  as  a 

31 


32  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

story  writer  people  began  to  ask:  "Who  is  this  Ian 
Maclaren?"  They  then  learned  that  he  was  the 
Eev.  John  Watson,  pastor  of  the  Sefton  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church,  Liverpool,  and  incidentally 
that  he  was  a  good  deal  of  a  preacher.  Those  who 
had  English  connections  heard  that  he  was  an  ex- 
ceptionally gifted  preacher. 

It  has  been  customary  in  connection  with  the 
Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  to  secure  eminent  British 
clergymen,  as  well  as  American,  and  in  this  way 
such  men  as  Doctors  Dale,  Fairbairn,  Brown, 
Stalker,  Horton,  Forsyth,  Henson  and  Home  have 
been  brought  to  America.  One  of  the  members  of 
the  Divinity  School  Faculty  happening  to  be  in 
Europe — if  I  remember  rightly  it  was  Professor 
George  B.  Stevens — he  took  occasion  to  visit  Dr. 
Watson's  church.  He  was  so  greatly/  impressed 
that  he  called  upon  him,  and  sounded  him  upon  the 
possibility  of  his  giving  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures. 
The  outcome  was  that  in  1896  he  came  to  New 
Haven  for  a  month  and  gave  his  eight  lectures  which 
were  afterwards  published  under  the  title,  "The 
Cure  of  Souls." 

The  lectures  proved  a  great  success.  The  only 
trouble  was  that  everybody  in  New  Haven — all  the 
good  souls  who  were  no  more  interested  in  the 
technique  of  preaching  than  in  the  art  of  etching — 
turned  out  to  see,  if  not  to  hear  this  famous  story- 
writer,  "Ian  Maclaren,"  who  had  written  "A  Doc- 
tor of  the  Old  School. "  (Most  of  them  did  not  even 
know  to  what  church  he  belonged  and  had  never 
heard  of  him  as  a  preacher.)  As  a  result  Marquand 


IAN  MACLABEN  33 

Chapel  could  not  hold  even  the  early  arrivals.  The 
crowd  would  have  filled  it  fifty  times  over.  The 
lectures  were  scheduled  for  three  o  'clock.  By  2 : 15 
not  a  student  could  edge  his  way  to  the  door.  The 
lecture  was  hurriedly  transferred  to  College  Hall, 
and  the  entire  course  was  given  there,  to  an  audience 
that  crowded  the  floor  and  the  galleries. 

As  it  happened  these  delightful  lectures  proved 
just  as  interesting  to  the  general  public  as  they 
proved  valuable  to  the  students  of  divinity.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  these  lectures  on  preach- 
ing are  given  every  year — eight  of  them.  They  have 
been  going  on  for  a  great  many  years  and  it  is  no 
easy  matter  to  give  a  course  of  eight  lectures  on 
preaching  without  repeating  a  good  many  things 
that  have  been  said  by  previous  speakers.  It  has 
been  only  the  outstanding  eminence  of  the  lecturers 
that  has  saved  the  course.  Most  of  them  have  been 
men  of  such  striking  personality  that  even  old 
things  have  become  new  in  passing  through  the 
alembic  of  their  experience.  To  judge  from  Dr. 
Watson's  lectures  it  might  have  been  supposed  that 
no  one  had  ever  before  lectured  on  preaching.  They 
were  as  fresh  and  new  as  though  they  were  the  first 
words  ever  spoken  on  this  great  theme. 

The  audiences  fell  in  love  with  the  man  at  the 
start.  He  was  the  image  of  repose,  and  yet  the 
warmth  of  his  personality  was  manifested  in  the 
first  sentence  he  uttered.  His  voice  was  resonant, 
and  a  very  remarkable  organ  to  interpret  the  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  speaker.  The  lectures  were  a 
unique  blending  of  idealism  and  the  humblest  details 


34  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

of  the  preacher's  work,  even  to  the  arrangements  of 
the  heading  of  the  sermon.  It  was  apparent  to 
everybody  before  he  had  spoken  ten  minutes  that 
the  lectures  were  to  be  largely  autobiographical,  al- 
though the  personal  pronoun  never  appeared  in 
them.  Now  and  then  bits  of  pathos  occurred  that 
moistened  the  eyes — but  there  was  never  an  ap- 
proach to  maukish  sentiment — never  any  of  that 
"practising  the  brine  act,"  to  quote  the  college  boys 
when  referring  to  certain  preachers  who  occasionally 
visited  the  college  chapel.  Best  of  all,  there  was  the 
most  delightful  play  of  humour  running  through  all 
the  lectures.  It  was  like  sunlight  playing  upon  the 
deep.  It  was  never  obtrusive  and  yet  it  was  always 
present.  It  was  in  the  man's  eyes  and  voice.  It 
was  enhanced  by  the  immobility  of  the  face.  It  was 
spontaneous  as  sudden  bursts  of  light.  On  the 
large  lecture  platform  many  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity faculty  were  sitting.  It  so  happened  that 
five  or  six  of  the  very  oldest  were  sitting  just  at  the 
lecturer's  left.  They  became  especial  targets  of  his 
wit,  and  once  or  twice  his  sly  hits  at  them  brought 
a  roar  from  the  audience.  He  himself  never  smiled. 
The  lectures  were  exceedingly  helpful  to  students. 
They  were  permeated  with  a  fund  of  homely  com- 
mon sense.  No  part  of  a  minister's  life  or  work  was 
left  untouched.  The  minister's  health,  his  personal 
religious  life,  his  study,  his  pastoral  work,  his  work 
with  young  people,  his  own  relation  to  God,  all 
received  as  much  attention  as  the  writing  of  ser- 
mons, the  delivery  of  the  message,  the  contents  of 
the  great  message  the  preacher  had  to  give.  There 


IAN  MACLAEEN  35 

was  only  one  moment  in  the  whole  course  when  the 
placid  waters  were  even  temporarily  ruffled.  The 
English  and  Scotch  clergy  smoke  much  more  than 
do  the  American  clergy,  especially  the  New  England 
clergy.  It  is  a  very  common  experience  to  meet 
clergymen  in  England  with  pipes  in  their  mouths. 
Dr.  Watson  was  probably  not  aware  of  the  prejudice 
which  exists  in  New  England  against  a  minister 
smoking.  So,  very  innocently,  in  the  course  of  one 
of  his  lectures,  when  he  was  talking  about  the  min- 
ister getting  close  to  men,  he  happened  to  say  some- 
thing to  the  effect  that  often  peculiarly  intimate 
closeness  came  when  the  minister  and  some  man  of 
his  congregation  were  smoking  their  pipes  together, 
and  that  a  good  pipe  was  not  a  bad  thing  in  estab- 
lishing confidences.  It  brought  down  a  storm  upon 
his  head.  In  the  New  Haven  papers  several  letters 
appeared  the  next  day  roundly  scoring  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel  for  "advising  young  ministers  to  smoke" 
(he  hardly  did  that,  but  it  went  the  round  of  the 
country  in  those  terms).  The  lectures  are  on  the 
whole  among  the  most  valuable  ever  delivered  at 
Yale,  and  they  are  worthy  the  careful  study  of  every 
clergyman.  And  as  for  interesting  reading — well, 
few  books  surpass  "The  Cure  of  Souls."  I  often 
reread  it  for  its  charm,  its  exquisite  diction,  its 
flights  of  fancy,  and  its  real  humour. 

The  lectures  were  strewn  with  parenthetical  re- 
marks. Here  are  three  or  four  which  brought  more 
than  smiles  and  which  are  indicative  of  those  run- 
ning through  the  whole  course : 

"A  sermon  ought  to  be  a  monograph  and  not  an 


36  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

encyclopedia,  an  agency  for  pushing  one  article, 
and  not  a  general  store  where  one  can  purchase 
anything  from  a  button  to  a  coffin. ' ' 

Speaking  of  the  personal  element  in  preaching, 
and  of  the  use  of  illustration,  he  remarked  in  pa- 
renthesis: "Travel  must  be  used  very  skillfully  and 
sparingly,  because  the  Eighi  and  the  Bay  of  Naples 
are  not  unknown  to  a  congregation.  On  the  whole, 
it  may  also  be  better  for  the  average  man,  for  the 
sake  of  his  people,  not  to  go  to  the  Holy  Land,  unless 
he  has  great  self-control.  His  personal  experiences 
will  make  even  the  Mount  of  Olives  a  terror,  and 
his  interpolated  explanation,  from  .what  I  have 
heard,  will  desecrate  the  noblest  passages  in  the 
Gospels.  Some  congregations  who  in  the  kindness 
of  their  hearts  sent  their  ministers  to  the  Holy  Land 
would  now  cheerfully  pay  twice  the  cost  to  obliterate 
the  journey  from  the  memory  of  the  good  man,  and 
to  rescue,  say  the  fifteenth  of  St.  Luke,  from  illustra- 
tive anecdotes." 

"A  course  of  sermons  on  the  metaphysics  of  faith, 
followed  by  another  on  the  philosophy  of  prayer, 
will  go  far  to  make  infidels  of  a  congregation.  One 
wants  his  drinking-water  taken  through  a  filter-bed, 
but  greatly  objects  to  gravel  in  his  glass. 

"It  is,  however,  possible  to  be  exasperatingly 
healthy,  and  one  can  understand  a  much  tried 
woman  being  driven  away  from  a  minister  whose 
radiant,  unlined  face  showed  that  he  had  never 
known  pain,  and  who  had  married  a  rich  wife,  and 
taken  refuge  in  a  church  whose  ministers  had  a  liver 
and  preached  rampant  Calvinism.  .  .  .  Invalid 


IAN  MACLABEN  37 

ministers  have  a  certain  use  and  do  gather  sympa- 
thetic congregations — becoming  a  kind  of  infirmary 
chaplains.  But  their  ecclesiastical  and  theological 
views  must  be  taken  with  great  caution." 

I  heard  all  of  the  eight  lectures  and  I  also  heard 
him  preach  in  the  college  chapel  and  speak  to  the 
students  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  meetings  in  Dwight  Hall. 
He  was  very  effective  in  these  talks  to  young  men. 
But  during  his  month's  residence  I  had  occasion  to 
meet  him  in  some  charming  New  Haven  homes  and 
here  I  got  further  insight  into  the  man's  character 
and  learned  much  of  his  early  life.  There  were 
three  or  four  homes  in  New  Haven  that  seemed 
peculiarly  attractive  to  him  and  he  would  often 
drop  in  for  an  evening,  and  was  frequently  the  guest 
at  dinners  there.  To  sit  before  an  open  fire  with 
him  was  a  rare  experience.  In  these  homes  to  which 
I  refer,  there  would  often  be  a  group  of  three  or 
four  men  whose  names  were  known  among  educated 
people  in  all  Europe  and  America.  The  conversa- 
tion was  such  as  one  would  expect.  Often  Dr. 
Watson  would  sit  silent  for  fifteen  or  twenty  min- 
utes listening  to  these  men.  Then,  by  some  sudden 
turn,  he  would  take  up  the  talk  and  for  several 
minutes  we  would  hear  some  of  the  raciest  comments 
on  life.  But  when  the  story-telling  was  at  its  height 
then  he  shone  above  all  others.  Some  one  would 
ask  him  a  question  about  Scottish  country  life  and 
off  he  would  go.  Or  some  one  would  ask  him  if  the 
characters  in  "The  Bonnie  Brier  Bush"  were  based 
on  actual  men  and  women  (they  were,  by  the  way) 
and  he  would  give  the  most  delightful  pictures  of 


38  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

Scottish  country  life  as  he  knew  it  as  a  young 
minister.  No  one  could  surpass  him  as  a  story- 
teller and  I  have  seen  staid,  aged  scholars  laugh 
until  tears  rolled  down  their  cheeks.  I  met  one  of 
New  Haven's  dignified  scholars  on  the  street  one 
morning  and  asked  him  how  he  was,  and  he  said:  "I 
have  a  stitch  in  my  back ;  I  went  out  to  dinner  with 
Ian  Maclaren  last  night."  It  was  not  only  the 
stories — it  was  the  way  he  told  them.  I  was  assist- 
ant to  Dr.  Hunger  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Watson's  visit 
to  New  Haven  and  that  is  how  I  happened  to  see  so 
much  of  him.  I  doubt  if  I  shall  ever  hear  such 
story-telling  again.  But  once  or  twice  I  saw  him  in 
very  melancholy  mood.  These  moods  came  over  him 
and  nothing  could  move  him  out  of  them  except 
solitude  or  preaching.  He  had  much  of  the  Celtic 
temperament,  as  is  very  apparent  to  those  who  know 
his  writings.  It  appears  in  his  novel,  "Kate  Car- 
negie," almost  more  than  in  his  short  stories.  The 
appearance  of  this  novel,  "Kate  Carnegie,"  was  a 
source  of  both  pleasure  and  disappointment  to  him. 
The  critics  handled  it  somewhat  severely  because  it 
lacked  that  dramatic  element  necessary  to  a  great 
work  of  fiction.  But  to  choice  souls  it  was  a  delight. 
The  sketch  of  Rabbi  Sanderson  is  one  of  the  best 
pieces  of  writing  Ian  Maclaren  ever  did.  The  Rabbi 
lives — just  as  Dr.  McClure  lives.  To  me  "Kate 
Carnegie"  is  a  book  of  great  charm,  and  I  read  it 
frequently.  Dr.  Watson's  delight  in  it  came  from 
the  appreciation  of  it  by  many  whom  he  greatly 
admired. 
I  remember  his  telling  one  evening  about  the 


IAN  MACLAREN  39 

hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  letters  he  had  received 
from  people  who  had  read  "A  Doctor  of  the  Old 
School."  These  letters  had  come  from  every  coun- 
try in  the  world — many  of  them  from  Australia, 
South  Africa,  Canada  and  America.  Some  came 
from  places  he  had  never  supposed  contained  men 
who  could  read  English.  Many  of  the  letters  were 
from  physicians  and  some  of  them  were  very  beau- 
tiful. These  letters  were  a  great  comfort  to  him 
and  he  read  and  reread  them  many  times.  But  other 
experiences  befell  him  from  the  publication  of  ' '  The 
Bonnie  Brier  Bush."  The  heresy  hunters  got  after 
him.  When  this  fact  did  not  annoy  him,  it  amused 
him,  and  it  was  very  funny  to  hear  him  tell  the 
story  of  it.  What  started  the  charge  of  heresy  was 
the  emphasis,  in  the  stories  of  Scottish  life,  on  the 
unlimited  love  of  God,  but  more  particularly  the 
confusion  of  what  some  call  "natural  goodness" 
with  religion.  He  would  amusingly  refer  to  the 
fact  that  he  "did  not  know  whether  he  was  being 
blamed  for  making  God  love  His  children  too  much, 
or  making  man  love  his  neighbour  too  much."  The 
heresy  trial  passed  over.  It  is  not  the  first  time 
that  charges  of  heresy  have  been  brought  against 
Scotchmen  because  of  their  novels.  There  are  some 
of  my  readers  who  can  probably  remember  back  far 
enough  to  recall  the  storm  of  accusation  "that  fell 
upon  the  head  of  George  MacDonald  when  "Robert 
Falconer"  was  published.  Many  Scotch  and  Eng- 
lish pulpits  were  closed  to  him  for  years. 

With  the  popularity  of  Dr.  Watson's  stories  a 
curiosity  to  see  some  of  his  sermons  began  to  be  felt 


40  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

in  Great  Britain  and  America.  As  a  result  "The 
Mind  of  the  Master"  was  published.  Its  reception 
greatly  pleased  him.  It  is  a  group  of  unusual  ser- 
mons— for  they  were  originally  used  as  sermons, 
although  appearing  as  essays  in  the  book.  Another 
volume,  "The  Potters'  Wheel,"  a  series  of  papers 
for  those  in  affliction,  is  very  tender  and  very  full 
of  original  thought,  too.  Dr.  Watson  had  deep 
insight  into  the  workings  of  the  human  soul,  and 
being  a  man  of  great  heart  his  ministry  to  the  suf- 
fering was  very  effective,  and  this  little  volume  is 
the  fruit  of  many  years'  real  "Cure  of  Souls."  It 
will  be  remembered  that  he  was  in  this  country  on  a 
lecture  tour  when  he  passed  away.  He  enjoyed  these 
lecture  tours,  but  got  rather  tired  of  repeating  lec- 
tures over  and  over  and  rather  tired  of  travel. 

Let  me  close  this  sketch  with  a  picture  of  one 
evening  in  New  Haven.  A  dinner  party  of  a  few 
choice  spirits  had  been  arranged  for  Ian  Maclaren, 
among  those  present  being1  Professor  George  P. 
Fisher  and  Dr.  T.  T.  Munger,  of  both  of  whom  he 
was  very  fond.  I  was  privileged  to  drop  in  after 
dinner  and  sit  in  an  inconspicuous  corner — a  sort  of 
learner — and  listen.  And  how  I  listened  and  how 
I  laughed!  Ian  Maclaren — for  it  was  he  rather 
than  the  Rev.  John  Watson  who  was  to  the  front 
that  evening — was  in  a  boyish  mood  and  for  an  hour 
he  told  Scotch  stories.  He  never  enjoyed  himself 
anywhere  else  in  America  as  much  as  during  that 
first  month  when  he  was  in  residence  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity. The  many  students  of  Professor  Fisher 
will  be  interested  in  this  quotation  from  a  letter 


IAN  MACLAKEN  41 

which  Ian  Maclaren  wrote  upon  his  second  visit  to 
America  in  1899 : 

' '  On  Saturday  we  left  for  New  Haven,  the  seat  of 
the  University  of  Yale.  Professor  Fisher,  our  for- 
mer host  at  Yale,  was  standing  on  the  platform  when 
we  arrived,  and  gave  us  the  kindest  of  receptions. 
He  is  a  typical  don,  so  scholarly,  so  witty,  so  gentle, 
and  it  is  a  privilege  to  live  in  his  house,  where  one 
breathes  humanity  in  the  old  Latin  sense,  and  is 
brought  into  contact  at  every  turn  of  the  conversa- 
tion with  the  wisdom  both  of  the  present  and  of  the 
past.  Beneath  his  roof  one  meets  all  kinds  of  schol- 
ars, and  every  one  seems  at  his  best,  so  that  one  has 
the  benefit  of  a  University  in  the  form  of  social 
intercourse.  Yale  reminds  one  of  an  English  uni- 
versity, because  its  buildings  are  scattered  here  and 
there,  and  some  of  them  are  now  nearly  two  hundred 
years  old,  and  because  the  scholars  at  Yale  have  the 
old-fashioned  love  of  accurate  and  delicate  culture, 
and  are  altogether  cleansed  from  showiness  and 
Philistinism.  Upon  Sunday  morning  we  went  to 
the  University  Chapel,  where  I  preached  before  the 
president  and  professors,  and  where  I  preached, 
which  is  a  different  thing,  to  fifteen  hundred  stu- 
dents of  the  universities.  One  looked  upon  a  mass 
of  humanity  in  the  bright  and  intelligent  faces,  and 
was  inspired  with  the  thought  of  the  possibilities  in 
those  lads  who  would  be  the  clergymen  and  lawyers 
and  statesmen  and  great  merchants  of  the  United 
States.  If  they  are  interested  the  'boys*  have  no 
hesitation  in  letting  the  preacher  know,  and  have 
endless  ways  of  conveying  their  weariness.  For  my 


42  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

subject  I  took  'Jesus'  Eulogy  on  John  the  Baptist,' 
and  made  a  plea  for  selflessness  as  the  condition  of 
good  work  and  high  character.  In  the  evening  I 
spoke  to  about  five  hundred  students  in  the  beauti- 
ful hall  of  the  University  Christian  Association. 
This  time  I  took  for  my  subject  '  Faith  and  Works, ' 
and  afterwards  met  a  number  of  men  who  were 
exceedingly  kind,  and,  as  is  characteristic  of  Amer- 
ican university  men,  very  gracious  and  courteous. 
During  my  stay  with  Dean  Fisher  I  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  conversation  with  several  distinguished 
Biblical  scholars  whose  names  and  whose  books  are 
known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  to  a  general 
practitioner  like  myself  this  intercourse  with  experts 
was  most  instructive  and  stimulating." 


IV 
THEODORE  T.  HUNGER 

AS  a  boy  I  used  to  have  the  privilege  of  rum- 
maging through  the  books  of  the  Public 
Library  in  my  native  town.  It  was  a  very 
unusual  library  and  rather  rich  in  those  religious 
books  which  are  found  in  the  average  public  library 
only  on  sufferance,  or  as  concessions  to  clergymen. 
This  was  because  the  trustees  happened  to  be  a  group 
of  men  of  real  culture — men  who  held  Mrs.  Hum- 
phry Ward's  theory  that  public  libraries  should  be 
constituted  to  meet  the  need  of  the  exceptional  boy 
or  girl  as  well  as  the  general  fiction  reading  public ; 
and  Mr.  Carnegie 's  theory  that  public  libraries  were 
worth  their  while  if  they  helped  one  boy  of  talent 
to  get  out  of  the  village.  As  a  result  the  Library 
in  Peace  Dale  was  rich  in  science,  theology,  essays, 
biography,  and  possessed  an  unusual  collection  of 
sermons  by  the  great  preachers.  I  do  not  know  how 
many  wintry  and  rainy  Saturdays  I  spent,  sitting 
on  a  step-ladder  in  the  alcoves  of  this  library,  read- 
ing these  books.  And  I  generally  took  an  armful 
home  for  Sundays.  It  was  here  that  I  first  ran 
across  two  books  of  sermons  for  young  people — 
"Lamps  and  Paths"  and  "On  the  Threshold."  I 
was  always  sensitive  to  style  and  I  am  not  sure  that 

43 


44  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

it  was  not  the  exquisite  literary  finish,  of  these  ser- 
mons that  appealed  to  me  as  much  as  their  remark- 
able suggestiveness,  their  wonderful  common  sense. 
(One  of  *he  professors  of  English  literature  at  Yale 
used  to  refer  to  Dr.  Hunger's  English  style  as  equal 
to  anything  being  written  in  America  at  that  time.) 
These  two  books  of  sermons  to  young  people  to  my 
mind  still  remain  the  best  that  have  been  produced 
in  America.  One  manufacturer  was  so  impressed 
with  "On  the  Threshold,"  that  he  bought  up  an 
edition  and  gave  it  to  the  young  men  in  his  factory. 
As  the  result  of  reading  these  books  I  desired  very 
much  to  hear  Dr.  Hunger  preach.  The  opportunity 
did  not  come  soon.  But  I  was  led  to  read  "The 
Freedom  of  the  Faith"  and  there  obtained  my  in- 
troduction to  "The  New  Theology."  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  first  essay  of  this  volume  bears 
that  title.  I  revelled  in  it.  Although  we  had  The 
Christian  Union  in  our  house  and  I  was  accustomed 
to  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott's  editorials,  Dr.  Abbott  had 
not  then  begun  his  papers  on  "The  Evolution  of 
Theology,"  and  Dr.  Hunger's  volume  was  my  first 
knowledge  of  that  theological  point  of  view,  which 
soon  became  the  common  property  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Congregational  churches  and  theological  semi- 
naries. I  read  and  reread  it  and  soon  knew  this 
book  almost  by  heart.  At  the  same  time  I  found 
Dr.  Newman  Smyth's  "Old  Faiths  in  New  Lights" 
in  the  library  and  read  and  reread  that.  What  city 
the  size  of  New  Haven  ever  had  two  such  men  side 
by  side  for  many  years — their  churches  only  a  stone's 
throw  from  each  other — as  T.  T.  Hunger  and  New- 


tHEODORE  T.  HUNGER  45 

man  Smyth?  For  years  they  stood  together  as 
champions  of  the  new  theology,  as  defenders  of  the 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  and  as  leaders  in 
the  movement  to  liberalize  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  They  were 
both  men  of  the  scholarly  disposition  and  tempera- 
ment, loving  the  study  and  enjoying  the  pulpit 
above  all  things,  but  both  brave  fighters  and  in  the 
midst  of  great  contentions  most  of  their  lives. 

It  was  not  until  1888  that  I  heard  Dr.  Hunger 
preach,  two  years  before  I  went  to  New  Haven  to 
enter  Yale.  I  was  spending  commencement  week  as 
the  guest  of  an  old  boyhood  friend  who  was  being 
graduated.  On  Sunday  evening  I  said  that  I  should 
like  to  go  to  the  United  Church  to  hear  Dr.  Hunger. 
Hy  friend  and  I  found  ourselves  listening  to  a  ser- 
mon on  St.  Paul's  shipwreck.  It  dwelt  upon  the 
truth  that  the  great  man  is  ready  at  any  time  to  meet 
any  emergency.  He  does  not  have  to  make  special 
preparation  for  special  crises.  The  Christian  should 
be  so  fortified  in  his  soul,  so  big  in  character  that  he 
is  ready  to  meet  any  temptation,  any  crisis  when  it 
comes.  The  great  battles  of  life  are  fought  before 
they  occur,  the  great  temptations  met  before  they 
come.  It  was  a  very  striking  sermon.  But  for  the 
first  time  I  heard  that  wonderful  voice — rich, 
resonant,  musical,  exquisitely  modulated  to  every 
shade  of  thought  and  feeling.  I  remember,  years 
afterwards,  a  well-known  man  saying  to  me  that  he 
doubted  if  there  was  a  preacher  in  the  United  States 
since  Beecher's  death  whose  voice  lent  itself  to  the 
thought  and  emotion  to  be  expressed  as  did  Dr. 


46  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

Hunger's.  I  said  to  my  friend  that  I  would  like  to 
speak  to  the  preacher.  I  might  never  meet  him 
again  and  I  wanted  to  tell  him  what  his  books  had 
been  to  me.  When  I  had  told  him  my  experience  in 
the  library  he  was  evidently  quite  pleased.  "It  is 
very  encouraging  to  learn  that  one's  words  have 
found  lodgment  in  some  young  man's  heart,"  he 
said.  Then  he  asked  me  about  my  home  and  occupa- 
tion and  ended  by  cordially  inviting  me  to  come  to 
his  home  before  I  left  New  Haven.  I  could  not  go 
then,  but  two  years  later  I  made  haste  to  accept  his 
kind  invitation  and  then  for  eight  years  I  saw  him 
constantly,  the  last  two  years  and  a  half  of  the  eight 
almost  daily.  He  was  my  real  theological  seminary. 
In  1890  I  went  up  to  Yale  University,  expecting 
to  stay  four  years.  I  stayed  eight.  During  the  first 
two  years  of  my  college  course  I  attended  the  College 
Chapel  and  heard  many  of  the  best  preachers  in  the 
country  and  some  poor  ones.  The  chief  criticism  I 
should  make  of  the  sermons,  as  I  recall  them,  was  of 
their  lack  of  directness.  The  preachers  had  to  face 
twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  students,  most  of  them 
mere  boys.  The  thinking  capacity  of  the  average 
undergraduate  is  greatly  overestimated.  He  is  not, 
as  a  rule,  interested  in  any  phase  of  thdught  or  in 
religion,  and  he  does  not  take  life  very  seriously. 
A  college  sermon  should  be  very  simple,  very  direct, 
very  concrete,  and  as  dramatic  as  possible.  The 
most  effective  college  sermon  I  ever  heard  was  by 
James  Stalker  on  the  three  men  in  every  man — the 
man  each  one  knows  himself  to  be;  the  man  his 
neighbour  knows;  the  man  God  knows.  (It  was 


THEODOBE  T.  HUNGER  47 

afterwards  printed  as  a  booklet,  if  I  remember 
rightly.)  After  two  years  of  college  sermons,  I  got 
permission  to  attend  the  Center  Church,  of  which 
Dr.  Newman  Smyth  was  pastor,  because  I  had  taken 
a  class  in  the  Center  Church  Sunday  school  and 
wished  to  be  identified  with  that  church.  I  after- 
wards became  assistant  superintendent.  It  was  not 
often  that  I  heard  Dr.  Hunger,  as  my  release  from 
Battell  Chapel  made  it  obligatory  to  attend  Center 
Church,  no  exception  being  made  except  for  the  Col- 
lege Chapel.  But  I  heard  him  lecture  or  preach  on 
special  occasions.  I  sometimes  called  on  him  at  his 
attractive  home  on  Prospect  Street.  Here  he  had 
taken  the  southwest  room  for  his  study.  It  was  con- 
nected with  the  rest  of  the  house  by  narrow  doors 
and  was  far  away  from  the  entrance.  The  walls 
were  lined  with  books,  and  there  was  a  big  fireplace, 
in  which  the  fire  was  always  burning.  It  was  in 
front  of  this  fire  that  he  received  his  visitors  and 
there  one  quickly  felt  at  ease.  (The  names  of  the 
men  who  have  sat  before  that  fire  would  make  an 
interesting  list.)  It  was  not  always  easy  for  young 
men  to  talk  with  him.  His  mind  dwelt  continually 
in  a  region  of  lofty  thought.  Sometimes  one  would 
come  upon  him  when  he  had  been  writing  a  long 
time  and  it  was  hard  for  him  to  get  down  to  earth. 
But  as  to  his  being  cold  and  unsympathetic,  as  once 
in  a  while  a  student  felt  him  to  be,  nothing  was 
farther  from  the  truth.  He  was  as  tender  as  a 
father,  and  as  frank  and  open  as  a  child.  When 
one  went  to  him  prepared  to  ask  him  questions  on 
any  problem  of  life  or  thought,  he  would  talk  with 


48  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

greatest  ease.  And  when  one  broke  through  that 
reserve  which  hedges  in  all  great  minds,  or  when 
he  became  interested  in  a  young  man,  no  more  cor- 
dial or  sympathetic  friend  could  be  found.  After  I 
entered  the  Divinity  School  in  1894  and  had  my 
Sundays  free  I  began  attending  his  church  quite 
regularly,  alternating  between  him  and  the  College 
Chapel,  although  the  chapel  services  were  not  at- 
tractive, because  of  the  unsympathetic  relationship 
existing  between  the  audience  and  the  preacher — ex- 
cept when,  once  in  a  while,  a  preacher  broke  through 
it.  In  the  middle  of  my  second  year  in  the  Semi- 
nary the  Rev.  Harry  Miles,  then  assistant  pastor  of 
the  United  Church,  resigned  to  take  the  Farmington 
Avenue  Church,  in  Hartford.  The  moment  I  heard 
of  his  leaving  I  hurried  up  to  202  Prospect  Street 
and  asked  Dr.  Hunger  if  I  could  not  have  the  place. 
Dr.  Hunger  looked  at  me  a  moment  and  then  said 
very  quietly :  * '  What  qualifications  have  you  for  the 
position?"  I  told  him  frankly  I  had  not  got  so  far 
as  to  think  of  qualifications;  that  the  moment  I 
heard  Hr.  Hiles  was  going  I  ran  to  ask  for  the  place. 
"Why  did  you  want  it?"  "Hostly,  to  be  with 
you,"  I  frankly  replied. 

I  did  not  know  what  he  would  think  of  that 
blunt  remark;  but  I  went  on  to  say  that  there  was 
nothing  I  would  enjoy  so  much  as  working  with  him 
and  that  I  thought  I  could  make  myself  useful 
among  the  five  hundred  young  people  and  children 
in  the  Sunday  school.  The  large  school  meant,  of 
course,  a  large  parish,  and  Dr.  Hunger  was  careful 
to  remind  me  of  that.  The  result  was  that  a  few 


THEODOEB  T.  MOTGEB  49 

days  later  I  was  asked  to  become  the  assistant  pastor 
of  the  United  Church.  I  was  then  in  the  middle  of 
junior  year  in  the  Divinity  School  and  I  remained 
with  Dr.  Hunger  for  a  year  after  graduation,  mak- 
ing two  and  a  half  years  in  all.  They  were  great 
years  for  me  and  perhaps  more  valuable  than  the 
same  period  in  the  University.  I  often  wonder,  in 
the  light  of  them,  if  it  might  not  be  a  good  idea  to 
take  half  a  year  off  the  Divinity  School  course  and 
put  the  young  men  with  some  experienced  pastor  for 
six  months.  Practically  all  of  our  graduates  from 
the  law  schools  begin  their  career  in  the  office  of 
some  experienced  lawyer  or  firm  of  lawyers.  Our 
graduates  from  the  medical  colleges  also  work  in 
hospitals  under  the  direction  of  older  men  before 
taking  up  general  practise.  But  most  of  our  clergy- 
men step  directly  from  the  seminaries  into  their 
churches. 

Naturally  my  work  brought  me  into  very  close 
contact  with  Dr.  Hunger,  and  how  I  did  enjoy  those 
two  years  and  a  half!  The  experiences  that  stand 
out  most  conspicuously  in  my  memory  were  those 
Sunday  mornings  in  the  pulpit.  The  pulpit  plat- 
form in  the  United  Church  is  about  ten  feet  above 
the  floor  and  reached  on  either  side  by  beautifully 
curved  stairs.  The  pulpit  itself  is  a  projection  of 
the  platform  out  between  the  stairs.  There  were 
three  high-backed  chairs  of  dark  wood,  with  red 
plush  seats,  in  the  pulpit,  and  in  the  right  hand 
chair  I  sat  almost  every  Sunday  morning  for  two 
years  and  a  half  and  listened  to  those  wonderful 
sermons.  I  was  within  four  feet  of  the  preacher 


60  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

and  sometimes  I  became  almost  mesmerized  by  the 
exquisite  cadence  of  the  voice — it  had  a  cadence  like 
great  music — the  wondrous  beauty  of  the  style — it 
was  the  purest  English  of  any  preacher  we  have 
had  since  Channing's  time — the  arresting  thoughts, 
rolling  out  one  after  another.  For  in  Dr.  Hunger's 
sermons  every  sentence  is  a  thought.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  find  a  style  where  fewer  lines  or  words 
are  wasted.  There  are  pages  of  his  sermons  where 
one  could  hardly  take  out  a  word  without  ruining 
the  fabric.  Sunday  after  Sunday  I  sat  spellbound 
by  those  great  sermons.  And  how  the  preacher 
enjoyed  preaching  them.  He  was  a  believer  in 
worship  and  liked  a  dignified  and  orderly  service. 
Yet  so  eager  was  he  to  deliver  the  message  that  was 
consuming  him  that  sometimes  he  could  hardly  wait 
until  the  time  came  to  step  forward  to  the  pulpit. 
The  congregation  felt  this  eagerness  and  it  only 
helped  to  impress  them  with  the  fact  that  this 
preacher  was  a  messenger  with  truth  that  was 
urgent. 

The  congregation  was  interesting.  It  was  partly 
a  selected  congregation.  New  Haven  is  full  of  in- 
tellectuals, being  the  seat  of  a  great  university,  and 
they  delighted  in  Dr.  Hunger's  preaching — its  keen 
analysis  of  a  text  or  truth ;  its  prophetic  quality ;  its 
grasp  on  the  great  scientific  movements  of  the  time 
(he  was  one  of  the  first  to  discover  the  spiritual 
significance  of  evolution) ;  its  wealth  of  literary 
allusion;  its  beauty  of  style;  its  interpretation  of 
life;  its  insight  into  the  problems  of  the  thinking 
minds;  all  this  greatly  attracted  thoughtful  men. 


THEODOEB  T.  MUNGEB  61 

The  sermons  always  dealt  with  big  themes.  Dr. 
Hunger  took  both  Christianity  and  life  too  seriously 
to  waste  time  over  trifling  subjects.  The  sermons 
moved  with  a  majestic  motion  because  they  were 
tuned  to  high  and  sublime  things.  Sometimes  I  felt 
myself  swept  off  into  great  spaces  as,  in  his  chant-like 
tones,  one  great  thought  followed  another,  just  as  one 
is  swept  into  space  by  music  of  majestic  motion.  The 
sermons,  while  not  besprinkled  with  quotations  from 
great  writers,  yet  showed  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  best  that  had  been  written  in  all  languages. 
They  also  showed  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
latest  contribution  to  thought.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered, as  I  said  above,  that  he  was  among  the  first  to 
interpret  evolution  from  the  Christian  point  of  view 
and  point  out  its  Christian  aspect.  So,  too,  he  was 
among  the  first  to  feel  the  significance  for  faith  of 
the  new  attitude  towards  the  Bible  called  "Higher 
Criticism"  and  he  saved  many  from  the  perils  of 
doubt  by  showing  from  month  to  month  how  the  new 
view  of  the  Bible  enriched  faith.  He  was  one  of  the 
prophets  of  the  "New  Theology,"  and  he  presented 
it  so  positively,  so  religiously,  that  his  congregations 
and  his  readers  felt  that  it  was  gain,  not  loss.  He 
also  sensed  the  movement  of  the  New  Theology  to- 
wards a  social  application  of  the  Gospel  and  was 
among  the  first  to  prophesy  that  Christianity  meant 
the  redemption  of  the  whole  social  order  for  this 
world,  as  well  as  of  individuals  contained  in  it 
for  this  world  and  the  next.  It  was  great  preaching 
I  heard  at  such  close  range  during  those  two  years 
and  more. 


62  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

For  the  benefit  of  any  young  preachers  or  students 
of  theology  who  may  be  reading  these  pages,  I  should 
like  to  say  that  one  reason  why  the  sermons  were  so 
impressive  and  so  perfect,  was  because  Dr.  Hunger's 
conception  of  the  preacher's  office  was  so  high  that 
he  put  infinite  pains  on  every  sermon.  The  study 
door  was  locked  every  morning  of  the  week  except 
Monday.  For  four  hours  each  day  the  preacher 
studied  and  wrote.  A  good  deal  of  his  time  went 
into  the  sermons.  He  wrote  sentence  by  sentence, 
each  sentence  a  thought  and  its  language  the  best 
that  could  express  that  thought.  He  always  read 
his  sermons.  I  do  not  remember  ever  hearing  him 
preach  extemporaneously  or  make  an  extemporane- 
ous address  outside  the  mid-week  service.  His  mind 
was  that  of  the  seer  and  worked  best  in  quiet.  But 
when  he  read,  the  same  glow  that  had  accompanied 
the  writing  suffused  his  speech,  so  that  one  never 
thought  of  the  paper  on  the  desk.  I  think  he  was 
never  comfortable  in  extemporaneous  speech  except 
in  the  midst  of  his  own  people  at  the  mid-week  serv- 
ice, where  he  talked  quietly  as  a  father  might  talk 
to  his  children.  But  even  for  this  talk  he  made  very 
careful  preparation.  I  know  only  one  other  preacher 
whose  sermons  bear  the  same  literary  grace  as  Dr. 
Hunger's  and  that  is  Dr.  Jowett.  And  Dr.  Jowett 
also  puts  infinite  time  and  labour  on  each  sermon. 

To  an  occasional  person  Dr.  Hunger  seemed  some- 
what unapproachable,  somewhat  reserved.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  he  was  one  of  the  most  warm-hearted 
and  generous  natures  I  ever  met.  He  had  such  a 
sense  of  the  sacredness  of  personality  that  he  could 


THEODOEE  T.  HUNGER  53 

never  have  been  one  of  the  "hail-fellow-well-met" 
style  and  I  doubt  if  he  would  have  liked  any  one  to 
slap  him  on  the  shoulder  or  presume,  upon  slight 
acquaintance,  to  practice  undue  intimacy.  He  had 
a  high  conception  of  honour  and  walked  with  a 
carriage  that  betokened  fearlessness  of  all  the  world. 
He  loved  his  home  and  he  gave  the  home  extremely 
high  place  in  the  social  economy.  It  was  open  to 
his  friends,  but  yet  it  was  his  home  and  everything 
in  it  belonged  to  him,  was  real  environment.  The 
pictures  were  many  of  them  portraits  of  famous  men 
to  whom  he  had  been  indebted.  The  books  were 
books  he  had  read.  One  of  the  happiest  periods  of 
his  life  was  when  he  was  writing  the  Life  of  Horace 
Bushnell.  He  was  BushnelFs  lineal  descendant  by 
the  spirit  and  the  book  is  what  all  real  biographies 
should  be,  one  great  and  sympathetic  mind  interpret- 
ing another.  I  doubt  if  his  mind  was  ever  idle.  The 
last  time  I  saw  him  I  found  him  out  in  his  garden. 
He  was  trimming  a  hedge.  "When  I  spoke  he  gave  a 
start.  He  was  not  thinking  of  the  hedge,  he  was 
thinking  of  the  mystery  of  growth  as  he  was  work- 
ing among  God's  green  things. 


ACROSS  the  little  lake  near  whose  shores  my 
boyhood  home  stands,  lived  one  of  the  most 
original  and  unique  geniuses  America  has 
produced — Rowland  Gibson  Hazard.  "With  only  a 
few  years'  training  in  the  schools  of  Pennsylvania, 
he  came  back  to  Peace  Dale,  home  of  his  ancestors 
for  many  years,  and  entered  upon  the  woolen  in- 
dustry which  his  older  brother  had  begun  some  time 
before.  This  industry  he  pursued  for  many  years, 
eventually  building  up  great  factories  which  em- 
ploy hundreds  of  men,  and  out  of  it,  along  with  wise 
investment  of  his  earnings,  he  built  up  a  fortune 
which  would  be  called  large  even  in  our  days.  Dur- 
ing the  earliest  years  of  this  business  he  worked  in- 
cessantly and  spent  much  time  travelling  by  car- 
riage, on  horseback  and  by  steamboat.  He  was 
always  an  extremely  busy  man,  for  not  only  did  his 
manufacturing  business  grow  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
but  he  became  involved  in  the  construction  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  in  other  big  ventures. 

Yet  this  man,  pioneer  in  industries,  with  none  of 
that  leisure  time  common  to  business  men  of  to-day, 
found  time  to  write  several  of  the  most  striking 
books  America  has  given  the  world.  And  the  marvel 

54 


EOWLAND  GIBSON  HAZAED  65 

is  that  these  books,  which  such  men  as  Herbert 
Spencer,  John  Stuart  Mill  and  William  Ellery 
Channing,  wondered  at,  were  all  on  just  those  sub- 
jects in  which  one  would  not  expect  a  manufacturer 
of  woolen  goods,  with  no  college  training,  to  be 
interested,  namely,  poetry,  philosophy,  and  especially 
metaphysics.  Before  he  died  Mr.  Hazard  had  written 
one  quite  considerable  book  on  "Language" — espe- 
cially language  as  a  vehicle  of  imagination  and  poetic 
thought  and  feeling ;  "Freedom  of  Mind  in  Willing  or 
Every  Being  that  Wills  a  Creative  First  Cause,"  an 
elaborate  book  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  partly 
devoted  to  a  refutation  of  "Edwards  on  the  Will"; 
"Causation  and  Freedom  in  Willing,"  a  book  which 
grew  out  of  his  conversations  and  correspondence 
with  John  Stuart  Mill;  "Man  a  Creative  First 
Cause,"  a  collection  of  lectures  delivered  before  the 
Concord  School  of  Philosophy.  And  besides  these, 
bis  collected  works  embrace  two  volumes  of  miscel- 
laneous papers  on  every  phase  of  economics,  science, 
philosophy  and  religion. 

The  wonder  to  us  who  lived  near  him  and  saw  him 
every  day  was  not  only  that  our  neighbour  was  think- 
ing thoughts  which  were  attracting  the  attention 
of  scholars  all  over  the  world,  some  of  his  theories 
even  being  answered  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  but  that 
one  who  was  so  engrossed  in  a  great  industry  could 
either  think  or  write  anything  at  all.  As  I  grew 
older  and  became  fond  of  reading  I  used  to  have 
little  talks  with  him.  Indeed  he  gave  me  the  first 
"author's"  book  I  ever  owned — his  volume  on  "Lan- 
guage. ' '  "  When  could  h  e  have  written  this  book  ? ' ' 


56  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

everybody  asked,  when  it  was  published.  It  was 
then  discovered  that  he  wrote  it  mostly  on  steam- 
boats and  at  hotels  and  in  railroad  stations.  Indeed 
much  of  it  took  form  and  shape  as  he  rode  on  horse- 
back through  the  Southern  States.  His  mind  was 
never  idle.  The  moment  he  sat  down  in  the  rail- 
road carriage  his  thoughts  went  off  to  some  great 
problem  of  philosophy,  especially  to  the  one  problem 
that  concerned  him  above  all  others,  that  of  estab- 
lishing the  absolute  freedom  of  the  human  will.  He 
believed  that  instead  of  man's  will  being  deter- 
mined absolutely  by  the  Creator,  man  himself  was  a 
creative  first  cause  and  could  work  in  a  divine  part- 
nership creating  the  universe  of  perfect  thought, 
freedom  and  love  which  was  the  end  of  God's  en- 
deavour. During  the  last  year  of  his  life  I  acted  as 
his  secretary.  We  drove  together  every  afternoon 
over  the  beautiful  roads  of  South  Kingston,  some- 
times following  the  ocean,  at  other  times  striking  in 
among  the  laurel-covered  hills,  with  their  gems  of 
lakes.  Very  often  we  used  to  talk  about  his  books. 
I  remember  how  often  he  spoke  of  the  power  of 
detachment  from  circumstance.  It  was  one  of  the 
easiest  things  to  cultivate  he  said.  He  had  been 
able  all  his  life  so  to  detach  himself  from  surround- 
ings that  it  made  no  particular  difference  to  him 
where  he  worked.  He  could  write  on  metaphysics 
in  a  room  full  of  men  debating  political  questions. 
He  said  he  was  absolutely  unaware  of  their  existence. 
He  could  also  pick  up  the  thread  of  a  discourse  just 
where  he  had  left  it  when  interrupted.  He  also  had 
that  rare  type  of  brain  which  can  think  in  words, 


BOWLAND  GIBSON  HAZAED  57 

without  pen  in  hand,  and  along  with  it  a  memory 
that  could  reproduce  in  the  study  the  thoughts  that 
had  previously  taken  form  in  his  brain. 

In  these  long  rides  I  used  to  ask  him  many  ques- 
tions about  the  men  he  had  known.  He  responded 
to  these  questions  with  evident  pleasure.  Indeed 
he  once  said  that  he  was  glad  I  asked  them  because  it 
was  such  pleasure  to  recall  the  great  men  he  had 
known.  He  had  been  particularly  fond  of  Dr. 
Channing,  and  he  often  told  me  of  their  visits  to- 
gether. Their  first  meeting  took  place  under  very 
interesting  circumstances.  Soon  after  "Language" 
had  been  published,  it  fell  into  Dr.  Channing 's 
hands.  He  was  so  impressed  by  it  that  he  read  it  to 
Miss  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody.  The  book  bore  no 
author's  name,  merely  a  nom  de  plume  of  "A  Heter- 
oscian."  Dr.  Channing 's  curiosity  was  greatly 
aroused  as  to  the  author.  He  sought  the  publishers 
in  Providence,  R.  I.,  found  out  that  the  author  was 
a  Mr.  Hazard,  a  manufacturer,  living  in  Peace  Dale 
and  immediately  visited  Mr.  Hazard.  He  remained 
several  days,  and  a  close,  lifelong  friendship  sprang 
up  between  them.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
estimates  of  Channing  is  that  which  Mr.  Hazard 
wrote  shortly  after  the  great  preacher's  death:  "The 
Philosophical  Character  of  Channing."  It  is  in- 
cluded in  the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Hazard's  collected 
works.  It  was  Dr.  Channing  who  first  suggested  to 
Mr.  Hazard  that  he  write  a  book  refuting  the  argu- 
ments of  Jonathan  Edwards,  which  Dr.  Channing 
believed  would,  if  accepted,  completely  destroy  all 
personality  and  individuality.  A  man  would  not 


58  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

be  a  person  any  longer,  simply  a  pawn  in  the  Cre- 
ator's hand.  Mr.  Hazard  promised  to  consider  the 
subject.  It  took  hold  of  his  mind.  For  twenty  years, 
so  he  told  me,  on  his  travels,  in  bed,  while  he  was 
dressing,  every  spare  moment,  he  gave  his  mind  to 
the  subject  and  in  1864  he  wrote  his  great  book. 
He  purposely  avoided  reading  books  on  the  subject  of 
the  will  and  man's  freedom  during  this  time,  believ- 
ing that  he  ought  to  answer  Edwards  in  his  own  way. 

It  was  this  volume  which  attracted  the  attention 
of  John  Stuart  Mill.  The  great  Englishman  at  once 
detected  a  remarkable  mind  and  an  original  thinker. 
A  correspondence  sprang  up  between  them,  and  thus 
another  interesting  friendship  was  begun.  Mr.  Mill 
wrote  to  Mr.  Hazard  saying:  "I  do  not  mean  any 
compliment  in  saying  that  I  wish  you  had  nothing 
to  do  but  philosophize,  for  though  I  do  not  often 
agree  with  you,  I  see  in  everything  that  you  write  a 
well  marked  natural  capacity  for  philosophy." 

He  used  often  to  speak  of  his  talks  with  John 
Stuart  Mill.  When  he  visited  England  for  the  first 
time,  in  1864,  he  had  just  published  his  book  and  he 
and  Mr.  Mill  had  many  talks  about  it.  In  1866  he 
visited  England  again  and  saw  much  of  Mr.  Mill. 
He  said  they  talked  by  days  rather  than  by  hours. 
A  correspondence  ensued  and  his  last  volume  but 
one,  "Causation  and  Freedom  in  Willing,"  is  really 
made  up  of  the  letters  he  wrote  Mr.  Mill  during  their 
correspondence  on  metaphysical  subjects. 

He  talked  to  me  of  others  he  had  known,  Lincoln, 
Miss  Peabody — another  wonderful  product  of  New 
England — Herbert  Spencer,  great  American  states- 


BOWLAND  GIBSON  HAZAED  59 

men,  and  the  financiers  who  had  linked  the  Pacific 
coast  to  the  Atlantic.  (His  relations  with  some  of 
these  men  had  not  been  happy,  but  he  saw  their 
genius.) 

He  died  in  1888  while  I  was  in  New  Haven  spend- 
ing Commencement  Week,  and  seeing  one  of  the 
Peace  Dale  boys  being  graduated  from  Yale  with 
highest  honours.  (A  few  years  later  this  boy  married 
the  granddaughter  of  this  great  philosopher.)  At 
his  death  one  of  those  beautiful  things  happened  that 
sometimes  accompany  the  passing  of  great  men. 
For  several  days  his  mind  had  been  clouded,  but 
just  a  few  hours  before  the  last  moment  it  cleared 
and  to  those  about  his  bed  he  discoursed  beautifully 
and  sweetly  on  high  themes,  and  then  fell  quietly 
asleep,  after  eighty-seven  years  of  life  that  had  never 
known  an  idle  moment. 

Four  things  I  learned  from  Mr.  Hazard.  First,  I 
learned  to  think  for  myself  and  having  come  to  con- 
clusions, not  to  be  afraid  of  them.  Secondly,  I 
learned  the  capacity  to  be  myself  under  all  condi- 
tions and  to  live  the  inner  life  in  circumstances  that 
did  not  minister  to  it.  Mr.  Hazard  could  commune 
with  God  in  a  room  clanging  with  looms  as  easily 
as  under  a  field  of  stars.  Some  of  his  most  beautiful 
poems — for  he  was  a  real  poet — were  probably 
written  in  the  factory.  Thirdly,  I  learned  the  value 
of  time — how  many  big  things  could  be  done  in  a 
few  moments.  The  average  busy  man  could  read  a 
good  book  a  day  in  the  time  he  wastes.  Fourthly, 
I  learned  that  in  the  world  of  the  mind  and  the 
spirit  were  to  be  found  the  true  joys  of  life. 


VI 
RICHARD  SALTER  STORES 

MY  first  sight  of  Dr.  Storrs  was  at  the 
Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Missions,  at 
Worcester  in  1895.  I  was  a  student  in  Yale  College 
at  the  time  and  I  obtained  permission  from  Dean 
"Wright  to  attend  the  meetings.  I  have  always  been 
extremely  glad  that  I  attended  this  particular  meet- 
ing, for  I  heard  the  greatest  debate  that  has  taken 
place  in  Congregationalism  for  many  years.  A 
graduate  of  one  of  our  divinity  schools,  one  Mr. 
Noyes,  had  presented  himself  as  a  candidate  for 
service  in  the  foreign  missions  field.  He  had  been 
rejected  by  the  Prudential  Committee  because  he 
refused  to  subscribe  to  the  statement  that  one  who 
had  not  accepted  Christ  in  this  world  had  no  chance 
to  accept  Him  in  other  worlds.  If  I  remember 
rightly,  he  was  not  dogmatic  on  the  question — did 
not  affirm  that  he  surely  would  have  the  opportunity, 
but  would  not  say  that  he  had  not. 

This  controversy  almost  rent  the  American  Board 
in  twain.  It  came  to  its  climax  at  the  meeting  in 
Worcester.  All  of  one  day  the  great  debate  lasted. 
Many  eminent  leaders  of  the  Church  participated 
in  it.  Four  of  them  stand  out  distinctly  in  my 

60 


EICHAED  SALTEB  STOEES  61 

mind,  three  of  whom  have  passed  away.  The  first 
was  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  former  President  of  Eobert 
College.  To  him  the  nerve  of  missions  was  cut  if 
the  missionary's  gospel  was  anything  less  than  "now 
is  the  accepted  and  only  time  for  repentance. ' '  The 
second  was  Dr.  Newman  Smyth,  whose  contention 
was  that  the  missionary  was  to  carry  the  Gospel  to 
the  world  so  far  as  he  could  and  that  the  fate  of 
those  who  did  not  hear  it  in  this  world  was  in  the 
hands  of  God.  The  third  speaker  was  Joseph  Cook, 
supporting  the  orthodox  side.  The  fourth  was  Dr. 
Eobert  E.  Meredith,  supporting  the  liberal  side. 
The  vast  audience  was  divided  in  opinion,  but  there 
was  no  doubt  that  the  majority  sympathized  with 
the  liberal  side.  Over  this  debate,  which  stirred 
men  to  the  very  depths— for  to  them  great  convic- 
tions were  at  stake,  as  well  as  the  future  of  all  mis- 
sionary work — Dr.  Storrs  presided  with  majestic 
power.  Everybody  knew  that  his  sympathies  were 
with  the  conservative  party;  but  not  once  did  he 
say  anything  or  do  anything  to  turn  the  course  of 
debate  or  to  influence  the  delegates  in  their  vote. 
The  vote  was  taken  and  the  liberals  won.  Here  the 
greatness  of  Dr.  Storrs  was  made  manifest.  He  had 
come  to  Worcester  determined  to  resign  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Board  because  of  inability  to  carry 
longer  the  heavy  burdens  which  the  office  entailed. 
His  resignation  had  already  been  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  Prudential  Committee.  But  when  the  decision 
of  the  Board  on  the  case  of  Mr.  Noyes  was  announced, 
he  withdrew  his  resignation  for  fear  that  it  might 
be  interpreted  by  the  world  as  a  protest  against  the 


62  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

action  of  the  Board  and  might  lead  to  other  resigna- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  conservative  members. 
When,  under  these  circumstances,  he  accepted  the 
reelection  to  the  presidency,  the  applause  was  long 
and  tremendous.  He  was  never  more  esteemed  than 
at  that  moment. 

During  his  term  as  president,  the  presidential  ad- 
dress was  always  the  great  event  of  the  annual  meet- 
ing. In  these  addresses  he  rose  to  his  loftiest  heights. 
The  expectancy  this  year  was  great,  and  when  he 
came  upon  the  platform,  after  a  brief  rest  from  pre- 
siding over  the  most  exciting  week  the  Board  had 
ever  known,  the  vast  audience  rose  to  him  as  one 
man.  The  big  hall  was  packed  to  the  door.  It  was 
the  first  time  I  had  ever  heard  him  preach,  although 
the  fame  of  his  eloquence  had  reached  my  boyhood 
home  years  before.  It  was  also  the  first  time  I  had 
heard  such  sustained  and  lofty  eloquence.  I  was 
spellbound  by  it.  I  do  not  know  that  I  have  ever 
since  felt  the  spell  of  eloquence  as  I  did  that  night. 
(It  is  an  interesting  fact  to  me  that  the  first  great 
oratorio  I  heard  was  in  that  same  hall  in  Worcester 
at  one  of  the  music  festivals  for  which  Worcester  is 
famous.  It  was  Mendelssohn's  "St.  Paul,"  and  the 
effect  of  my  first  contact  with  great  music  was 
similar  to  that  of  my  first  contact  with  great  elo- 
quence— an  exaltation  never  quite  to  be  realized 
again.  Ah,  those  first  glimpses  of  new  worlds  of 
beauty !)  Dr.  Storrs '  voice  was  like  a  silver  trumpet. 
His  diction  was  Ciceronian.  His  words  came 
from  the  poets  and  from  that  book  of  matchless 
words — the  Bible.  His  thought  was  lofty  and  sus- 


EICHAED  SALTEE  STOEES  63 

tained,  rising  gradually,  like  great  music,  to  sublime 
heights.  Imagine  the  effect  upon  a  college  boy,  ex- 
tremely sensitive  to  eloquence,  of  such  words  as 
these:  "The  aim  of  foreign  missions  concerns  the 
grandest  things  in  God — not  His  power  and  His 
authority  only,  but  the  character  in  Him,  of  wisdom 
and  love,  which  gives  sublimity  to  His  omnipotence, 
and  without  which  that  omnipotence  would  be  a  con- 
tinual and  terrific  menace  to  the  universe.  It  con- 
cerns God  in  His  greatest  work — greater  than  that 
of  creation,  greater  than  that  of  yonder  swinging 
constellations  in  their  mighty  rhythm  through  the 
silent  skies, — the  work  of  redemption  by  which  the 
human  soul,  defiled  and  ignorant,  is  to  be  lifted  into 
fellowship  with  God,  through  His  Son  and  by  His 
Spirit,  and  to  be  made  the  partaker  here,  and  the 
full  heir  hereafter,  of  the  glory  and  honour  and  im- 
mortality which  are  beyond  the  grave.  You  re- 
member that  that  magnificent  man,  Phillips  Brooks, 
as  I  always  love  to  call  him,  Bishop  Brooks  of  this 
diocese  of  Massachusetts,  said  once,  when  he  was 
asked  in  London,  'What  sermon  are  you  to  preach 
before  the  Queen?'  'What  sermon?  There  is  only 
one  sermon ! '  Ah,  his  meaning  was,  I  am  sure,  that 
God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself, 
is  to  be  the  substance  and  scope  of  every  sermon  ever 
preached  from  a  Christian  pulpit;  and  he,  when 
his  work  was  done,  went  up  to  see  the  great  results 
of  that  resplendent  work,  in  the  circles  of  the  im- 
mortals, before  God's  throne.  That  is  the  aim  of 
foreign  missions, — to  bring  this  poor,  timid,  sinful 
human  spirit  into  alliance  and  fellowship  with  the 


64  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

divine  mind  on  high  and  with  the  divine  heart,  and 
to  cover  the  earth,  bloody  as  it  is,  denied  as  it  is, 
ragged  and  torn  as  it  is  by  strifes  of  war,  with  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  of  peace,  and  of  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  a  work  which  not  merely 
exalts  the  mind,  it  positively  dilates  it,  when  it 
enters  into  our  clear  and  inspiring  thought.  It  is 
a  work  the  contemplation  of  which  opens  all  history 
to  us,  opens  all  human  life  here  and  beyond  to  our 
thought — a  work  that  lifts  us  into  the  closest  sym- 
pathy with  Christ  on  His  cross,  in  His  ascension 
and  on  His  throne;  a  work  which  brings  the  sub- 
limities and  mysteries  of  the  eternal  counsel  of  God 
to  enwrap  and  enkindle  our  contemplating  minds." 
In  1895  I  again  attended  the  meeting  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board — in  Brooklyn.  I  was  then  in  my  first 
year  of  the  Divinity  School.  Several  of  us  went 
down  to  the  meetings.  My  chief  thought  in  going 
was  to  hear  Dr.  Storrs  again.  I  heard  him  twice — 
once  in  the  meetings  of  the  Board,  once  in  his  own 
pulpit.  I  was  glad  to  hear  him  in  his  own  church — 
The  Church  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  is  a  beautiful  church, 
and  in  its  stately  beauty  wonderfully  matched  the 
stateliness  of  his  preaching  and  the  dignity  of  his 
style.  The  city  was  full  of  delegates  to  the  meetings 
and  they  crowded  the  church  far  beyond  its  capacity 
that  Sunday  morning.  But  I  was  there  early  and 
secured  a  seat  near  the  front.  He  preached  on  the 
need  of  the  world  for  Christ,  and  the  sermon  was  a 
fitting  prelude  to  the  missionary  meetings  of  the 
week.  It  was  great  preaching,  and  one  came  away 
not  only  exalted,  but  eager  for  the  address  before 


EICHAED  SALTEE  STOEES  65 

the  Board.  The  address,  when  it  came  four  days 
later  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  he  ever  made,  the  famous  address  on 
"The  Aim  of  Foreign  Missions."1  With  such  pas- 
sages as  this  singing  in  our  hearts  did  we  students 
go  back  to  New  Haven  the  next  day:  "One  of  the 
great  things  connected  with  this  missionary  work  is 
this:  That  the  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ  is 
essential  to  meet  the  deepest  need  of  the  human  soul, 
to  meet  the  needs  of  men  individually  and  univer- 
sally. Sometimes  we  forget  this.  We  feel  as  if  a 
man,  certainly  a  man  of  higher  powers,  a  woman  of 
finer  tastes  and  more  delicate  sensibilities,  could  go 
through  the  world  without  this,  and  still  retain  all 
that  is  noble  and  beautiful  in  spirit.  But  this 
manifestation  of  God  in  His  Son  is  essential  to  the 
highest  welfare  of  every  human  soul,  in  Christian 
lands  or  in  heathen  lands.  For  the  illumination  of 
the  mind,  if  for  nothing  else,  concerning  the  grand- 
est facts  of  the  universe,  this  is  necessary :  to  show  us 
the  being  and  government  of  God,  with  the  supreme, 
loving  self-sacrifice  which  is  eternal  in  His  heart ;  to 
open  to  us  the  vital  and  measureless  universe  with 
which  we  are  connected  by  the  essential  constitution 
of  our  being ;  to  show  us  the  glory  of  the  immortality, 
manifest  in  Christ  and  emphasized  by  His  cross;  to 
show  us  man,  in  his  nature  and  its  possibilities,  in 
his  character  and  its  perils ;  to  show  us  the  way  and 
the  promise  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  giving  new  ex- 
hilaration to  the  soul,  a  new  sense  of  freedom,  a 

1  See  "  Addresses  on  Foreign  Missions,"  by  Richard  S.  Storrs, 
D.  D.,  LL.  D.    Boston,  1900,  p.  121. 


66  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

new  and  courageous  expectation  for  the  great  here- 
after ;  to  work  a  true  regeneration  in  the  temper  of 
the  human  heart,  by  the  grace  of  God  accompanying 
that  manifestation  of  Himself  in  His  Son,  so  that 
the  soul  shall  enter  into  fellowship  with  the  divine 
soul,  and  the  spirit  in  man  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
pure  and  mighty  spheres  of  spiritual  life  to  which 
we  are  organically  related.  For  all  this  we  need, 
individually,  the  manifestation  of  God  in  His  Son. 
Nature  cannot  give  us  these  illustrious  revelations, 
and  these  inspiring  impulses.  Nature,  with  fruits 
and  flowers  and  stately  mountains,  tumbling  oceans 
and  shining  skies,  all  the  great  and  lovely  phenomena 
of  the  creation,  has  on  it  no  celestial  gleam  from 
within  the  gates  of  pearl.  If,  then,  it  be  a  great 
thing  to  take  a  human  soul  and  lift  it  into  divine 
fellowship  and  immortal  felicity,  this  manifestation 
of  God  in  Christ  becomes  sublime,  as  the  instrument 
by  which  to  do  a  work  so  august ;  the  work  which  is 
our  work,  our  missionary  work,  our  work  as  persons 
in  the  social  circles  which  we  affect,  our  work  as 
related  to  this  Board  in  sending  this  revelation  of 
God  to  those  sitting  in  darkness,  whom  we  have 
never  seen." 

In  1897  the  American  Board  came  to  New  Haven 
for  its  annual  meeting.  I  was,  at  this  time,  assistant 
to  Dr.  T.  T.  Hunger,  in  the  United  Church.  I  repre- 
sented this  church  on  the  committee  of  welcome  and 
this  position  brought  me  into  personal  contact  with 
Dr.  Storrs  for  the  first  time.  I  found  him  delight- 
fully affable  and  one  day,  when  I  was  alone  with 
Mm  for  a  moment,  I  told  him  about  that  night  when 


EICHAED  8ALTEE  STOEES  67 

I  first  heard  him  in  Worcester.  He  seemed  pleased 
at  what  I  said  and  then  remarked:  "I  never  enjoy 
speaking  outside  of  my  own  pulpit,  except  at  these 
meetings  of  the  American  Board.  There  is  some- 
thing here — a  consecration,  a  faith,  a  courage,  an 
idealism  that  catches  one  up  and  inspires  him  to  say 
the  best  there  is  in  him."  A  very  good  testimony 
to  the  American  Board  is  that !  I  was  privileged  to 
be  present  at  supper  with  him  one  evening  in  one  of 
the  New  Haven  houses.  Professor  George  P.  Fisher 
was  there  and  the  conversation  was  mostly  between 
him  and  Dr.  Storrs.  And  very  delightful  talk  it 
was.  They  told  many  stories.  I  remember  one, 
among  others,  which  Dr.  Storrs  told.  He  said  that 
he  was  once  at  a  little  dinner  where  Secretary  Evarts 
and  Joseph  H.  Choate  were  present.  "Mr.  Evarts 
began  to  tell  me,"  he  said,  "that  he  had  a  reputa- 
tion for  making  many  speeches  when  he  was  Sen- 
ator, and  he  spoke  of  a  Senator,  who  was  pointing 
out  Senators  to  a  constituent  in  the  gallery,  and  who 
remarked,  'That  man,  down  at  that  desk,  is  Mr. 
Evarts,  of  New  York.'  'Is  he?'  replied  the  man. 
*  "Why,  he  don 't  seem  to  be  saying  anything. '  '  Well, ' 
said  Mr.  Choate,  looking  serenely  across  the  table  at 
Mr.  Evarts,  'were  you  making  a  speech?'  "  Dr. 
Fisher  and  he  got  to  talking  about  the  way  a  cer- 
tain story,  in  changed  form,  was  often  attributed  one 
generation  after  another  to  distinguished  men.  Dr. 
Storrs  related  the  incident  of  Dr.  Kirk  preaching,  in 
the  earlier  years  of  his  ministry  in  Pittsfield,  about 
the  way  of  worldly  pleasure  and  gain.  He  pictured 
it  as  a  broad,  smooth  declining  road  along  which  men 


68  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

walked  until  suddenly  it  came  to  a  precipice.  He 
depicted  so  vividly  men  slipping  over  this  precipice 
that  a  man  in  the  gallery  leaned  over  the  edge  and 
looked  down  to  see  them  falling.  He  then  related 
the  well-known  story  of  the  audience  leaning  forward 
to  see  the  rat  running  into  the  hole,  when  Mr. 
Beecher,  suddenly  pointing  down  into  the  corner, 
used  that  image  of  little,  cowardly  men  who  scuttled 
into  their  holes  when  any  great  principle  was  at 
stake,  and  wondered  if  it  did  not  have  its  origin  in 
the  story  of  the  effect  upon  an  audience  of  Dr.  Kirk's 
eloquence.  Professor  Fisher  recalled  the  incident  of 
a  preacher  in  one  of  the  smaller  French  cities  who 
was  discoursing  very  vividly  on  the  certainty  of  the 
coming  of  the  angel  of  judgment  and  its  possible  ex- 
istence. Suddenly  he  glared  up  into  one  corner  of 
the  church  and  with  pointing  finger  excitedly  ex- 
claimed: "I  see  him  now,  I  see  him  coming  now!" 
"Where,  where?"  exclaimed  several  in  the  front 
pews  of  the  church.  The  little  supper  passed  off 
very  quietly  with  much  story-telling  and  interesting 
talk.  Professor  Fisher  and  Dr.  Storrs  had  played 
two  of  the  leading  parts  in  the  great  issue  that  had 
been  before  the  Board  so  many  years — the  question 
of  the  attitude  of  the  Board  on  future  probation, 
and  they  had  not  always  seen  eye  to  eye.  The  ques- 
tion did  not  arise  at  the  supper  table.  There  was, 
however,  some  conversation  on  the  future  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  America.  It  is  not  known 
by  everybody  that  Dr.  Storrs  was  a  devoted  student 
of  church  history,  and  probably  was  better  acquainted 
with  the  development  of  the  great  Catholic  Church 


EICHAED  SALTEE  STORES  69 

than  were  most  ministers  outside  professors'  chairs. 
His  large  volume  on  "Bernard  of  Clairvaux:  The 
Times,  The  Man,  and  His  Work,'*  reveals  a  great 
wealth  of  historical  allusion  and  a  scholar's  grasp 
on  one  of  the  most  interesting  periods  of  the 
Church's  life.  The  chapters  read  almost  like  an 
epic  poem.  They  make  one  wonder  whether,  in  our 
modern  passion  for  directness  of  speech,  our  tend- 
ency towards  the  conversational  manner  in  preach- 
ing, we  are  not  losing  some  of  the  effectiveness  of  the 
beauty  and  art  of  such  utterances  as  fill  these  pages. 
For  beauty  is  effective  after  all,  and  perhaps  such 
style  as  that  of  Dr.  Storrs  was  an  elevating  thing 
just  in  itself. 

The  address  at  New  Haven  was  his  last  as  Presi- 
dent  of  the  American  Board.  He  called  it  his  "ex- 
augural"  address.  There  was  at  that  time  no  build- 
ing in  New  Haven  capable  of  holding  the  crowds  that 
came  out  to  hear  it.  It  was  on  The  Foundation 
Truths  of  Missions,  and  contained  some  passages  of 
lofty  beauty.  A  solemn  hush  came  over  the  big  as- 
sembly, as  with  trembling  voice  he  finished  this,  his 
tenth  and  last  address  as  President  of  the  American 
Board.  None  of  us  who  heard  them  will  forget  these 
words : 

"So,  my  dear  friends  and  brethren,  members  of 
this  Board,  and  Christian  people  interested  in  this 
work  of  missions,  I  bring  to  you  these  convictions, 
which,  as  I  said,  are  not  new,  which  were  central  in 
my  heart  and  mind  ten  years  ago  when  I  faced  you 
for  the  first  time  on  the  platform  at  Springfield, 
which  have  been  only  more  and  more  thoroughly  and 


70  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

vitally  enthroned  in  my  mind  and  heart  from  that 
day  to  this.  Let  us  work  along  the  lines,  and  on  the 
levels,  of  these  cardinal  and  superlative  convictions : 
that  God  has  a  plan  in  history,  that  we  may  work 
with  that  plan,  and  be  as  sure  as  we  are  of  God's 
character,  as  sure  as  we  are  of  God's  being,  that 
ultimate  success  shall  crown  it ;  and  let  us  work  with 
the  Gospel,  the  gospel  of  life  and  salvation,  which 
He  has  crowded  and  rammed  with  spiritual  appeal 
to  every  soul  of  man.  Let  us  work  feeling  that  this 
is  the  opportunity  of  the  ages,  that  this  nation  is  the 
minister  of  God  for  the  ages  to  come ;  by  its  position, 
by  its  power  and  resources,  by  its  relation  to  other 
peoples,  by  its  past  history,  it  is  the  servant  of  God 
for  furthering  His  divine  designs  on  earth;  and  let 
us  work  always  in  the  inspiration  of  that  Holy 
Ghost  who  separated  Barnabas  and  Saul  to  the  work 
of  missions,  who  separated  the  mediaeval  missionaries 
from  all  the  quietness  of  monasteries  and  the  seclu- 
sion and  delight  of  libraries,  to  go  out  facing  death 
that  they  might  teach  men  of  the  Lord.  Let  us  work 
under  the  power  of  that  spirit  which  we  have  seen 
in  our  own  missionaries,  felt  in  our  own  hearts — felt 
more  than  once,  thank  God,  in  these  great  assemblies ; 
and  let  us  do  promptly  what  we  have  to  do ! " 

In  1897  Dr.  Storrs  resigned  from  the  presidency 
of  the  American  Board  and  it  looked  as  though  these 
great  missionary  addresses  were  to  cease.  But  by 
an  accident  he  was  destined  once  again  to  present 
the  grandeur  of  missions  to  a  vast  assembly,  and  this 
time  to  many  distinguished  Congregationalists  from 
other  lands.  The  International  Congregational 


EICHAED  SALTEE  STOEES  71 

Council  met  in  Boston  in  the  fall  of  1899.  Dr.  C. 
M.  Lamson,  of  Hartford,  who  had  succeeded  Dr. 
Storrs  in  the  presidency  of  the  American  Board,  had 
been  asked  to  address  the  council  on  "The  Per- 
manent Motive  in  Missionary  Work."  Before  the 
Council  was  convened  this  lovable  man  had  passed 
away.  Dr.  Storrs  was  asked  to  take  his  place  and 
speak  on  the  same  subject.  Although  Dr.  Storrs 
had  practically  retired  from  public  speaking  he  con- 
sented to  come  on  this  occasion,  to  every  one's  great 
joy.  It  will  be  remembered  how  beautifully  he  be- 
gan his  address:  "It  must  strike  one  with  a  sense 
of  unnaturalness,  that  the  older  tree  should  stand 
when  the  younger  and  more  vigorous  has  been  sud- 
denly broken;  and  that  I,  who  have  been  retired 
from  every  occasion  of  this  kind  for  many  months, 
should  be  suddenly  called  upon  to  take  his  place  for 
the  service  which  he  would  far  more  suitably  have 
performed." 

The  meetings  of  the  Council  were  held  in  Tremont 
Temple,  and  on  the  evening  of  Dr.  Storrs'  appear- 
ance the  great  audience  rose  to  their  feet  to  greet 
him.  He  was  much  affected.  I  happened  to  be 
seated  immediately  in  front  of  him,  in  the  first  row. 
I  was  impressed  with  the  extent  to  which  he  had 
aged. since  I  had  heard  him  two  years  before.  But 
the  moment  he  began  to  speak  the  old-time  fire  and 
eloquence  returned,  and  before  an  assembly  that  had 
listened  to  two  of  the  greatest  addresses  ever  heard 
in  Boston,  one  the  sermon  of  the  night  before  by 
Principal  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  of  Oxford,  the  other  the 
paper  by  Principal  Peter  Forsyth,  of  London,  he 


72  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

rose  to  heights  that  were  truly  sublime.  Everybody 
was  moved  by  the  sheer  beauty  of  the  thing.  Then 
we  also  felt  that  we  were  listening  to  the  valedic- 
tory— as  it  proved  to  be — of  the  most  eloquent 
preacher  of  the  missionary  gospel  our  generation 
had  known.  There  were  few  dry  eyes  in  the  Temple 
as  the  grand  old  man  uttered  his  last  words: 

"Oh,  my  friends,  let  us  remember,  wheresoever 
we  labour,  that  our  errand  is  to  make  this  complex, 
complete,  energetic  missionary  motive  more  clear  to 
every  mind,  more  thoroughly  vigorous  and  energetic 
in  every  heart.  Everything  else  must  be  postponed ! 
Do  not  let  us  spend  our  strength  in  picking  the  Gos- 
pel to  pieces,  to  see  if  we  can't  put  it  together  again 
in  a  better  fashion !  Do  not  let  us  spend  our  strength 
in  any  denominational  controversies  or  collisions. 
Iiet  us  give  ourselves,  with  all  our  power,  to  making 
this  immense  missionary  motive  operative  throughout 
all  the  churches,  throughout  and  in  all  Christian 
hearts ;  till  He  shall  come  whose  right  it  is  to  reign, 
and  take  unto  Himself  His  great  power,  and  rule 
King  of  Nations  as  well  as  Bang  of  Saints.  Let  us 
recognize  this  as  the  one  truly  magnificent  errand  for 
man  on  the  earth.  Let  us  be  filled  with  the  divine 
spirit,  that  we  may  accomplish  it  the  more  perfectly. 
Let  us  never  intermit  the  service.  And  if,  as  we 
grow  older,  we  grow  weary  with  cares  and  labours, 
and  it  may  be  with  sorrows,  and  are  disposed  some- 
times to  think  we  may  now  rest,  let  us  remember  the 
word  of  Arnauld,  the  illustrious  Port  Royalist,  whom 
even  his  passionate  enemies,  the  Jesuits,  admitted  to 
.be  great,  of  whom  it  is  recorded  that  when  some 


EICHAED  SALTER  STORES  73 

said  to  him  'You  have  laboured  long,  now  is  your 
time  to  rest!'  his  reply  was,  'Rest?  Why  rest,  here 
and  now,  when  I  have  a  whole  eternity  to  rest  in?' 
God  in  His  grace  opens  that  tranquil  and  luminous 
eternity  to  each  of  us,  where  we  may  rest  in  nobler 
praise  and  grander  work,  f orevermore ;  and  unto 
Him  be  all  the  praise ! " 


VII 
GEORGE  P.  FISHER 

ONE  afternoon,  some  years  before  I  went  to 
college,  I  was  walking  along  the  streets  of 
my  native  village,  Peace  Dale,  when  I  no- 
ticed a  stranger  coming  towards  me.  It  was  summer 
and  he  was  carrying  his  hat  in  his  hand.  I  was 
impressed  at  once  by  his  appearance.  For  he  was 
a  handsome  man.  He  was  very  bald  on  the  top  of 
his  head,  but  there  was  a  circle  of  beautiful  white 
locks  falling  over  his  collar.  There  were  also  side 
whiskers  of  white  hair,  while  the  complexion  was 
fresh  and  rosy.  There  was  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes — 
how  well  I  came  to  know  that  twinkle  in  after  years — 
as  he  stopped  me  and  asked  where  the  road  on  which 
he  was  walking  led  to.  I  told  him  that  it  led  to  the 
ocean  and  he  said  that  was  just  the  thing  he  wanted 
to  see.  I  did  not  then  know  that  I  was  speaking  to 
one  of  the  three  or  four  most  famous  historians  of 
the  Church  this  country  has  produced.  But  the  next 
day,  I  saw  by  the  local  paper  that  Professor  George 
P.  Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  was  visiting  at  the 
home  of  Rowland  Hazard.  Then  I  knew  it  was  he 
whom  I  had  met.  I  wished  I  had  asked  him  to  let 
me  walk  with  Mm,  for  I  had  already  become  ac- 
quainted with  one  of  his  books,  the  "Manual  of 

74 


GEOEGE  P.  FISHEE  75 

Christian  Evidences,"  which  had  been  given  me  by 
a  friend  as  containing  the  best  arguments  in  favour 
of  miracles  and  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity 
that  was  to  be  had  in  compact  and  popular  form. 
It  still  remains  one  of  the  best  handbooks  on  Chris- 
tian Apologetics,  although  it  has  been  somewhat 
superseded  by  such  books  as  Dr.  James  M.  Whiton  's 
"Miracles  and  Supernatural  Eeligion,"  and  Dr. 
George  A.  Gordon's  "Eeligion  and  Miracle,"  both 
of  which  lift  the  discussion  up  into  the  high  plane 
of  religion,  emphasizing  the  fact  that  before  the 
great  miracle  of  world  redemption  which  Christ  has 
wrought,  the  question  of  the  miracles  in  the  gospel 
records  is  of  minor  importance.  They  are  matters 
purely  of  evidence,  and  the  real  miracle,  the  ethical 
and  religious  transformation  of  the  race,  Christianity 
itself,  does  not  stand  or  fall  by  them.  But  Professor 
Fisher's  little  book,  in  which  he  carefully  reviewed 
the  evidences  and  at  the  same  time  argued  for  the 
supernatural  origin  of  the  Gospel  on  the  ground  that 
it  had  wrought  a  supernatural  transformation  in  the 
world,  had  greatly  helped  me  at  a  time  when  I  had 
been  reading  Huxley's  Lay  Sermons  and  pamphlets 
by  Professor  Tyndale  and  Edward  Clodd.  (At  that 
time  the  cheap  editions  of  the  various  books  by  the 
large  group  of  English  agnostic  scientists  were  to  be 
found  all  over  New  England,  issued  as  the  "Hum- 
boldt  Library.") 

As  I  said,  I  was  sorry  I  had  not  asked  Professor 
Fisher  if  I  might  walk  with  him.  As  it  happened  I 
was  to  see  a  great  deal  of  him  in  later  days  and  to  be 
his  pupil  for  four  years.  I  did  not  know  this  then, 


76  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

for,  although  I  was  thinking  of  the  ministry,  I  had 
Andover  Theological  Seminary  in  mind.  But  while 
I  was  in  Yale  College  I  made  certain  acquaintances 
which  influenced  me  to  stay  on  at  Yale  and  take  my 
divinity  courses  there.  During  the  four  years  of 
college  work  I  rarely  saw  Dr.  Fisher.  I  attended 
all  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  on  Preaching — these 
lectures  are  always  open  to  the  whole  University — 
and  occasionally  Professor  Fisher  would  introduce 
the  lecturer  at  the  beginning  of  the  course.  But 
when,  in  the  fall  of  1894,  I  entered  the  Divinity 
School  I  came  into  contact  with  him  at  once.  If  I 
remember  rightly  Professor  Day  was  Dean  at  that 
time  but  Professor  Fisher  became  Dean  shortly  after 
I  entered. 

In  Junior  year  I  had  Church  History  with  him 
for  a  year,  and  during  the  whole  of  Senior  year  I 
studied  the  History  of  Christian  Doctrine  with  him. 
Although  I  eventually  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  out 
of  class  room  hours,  it  will  be  interesting  to  say  a 
word  or  two  about  him  as  a  teacher.  In  the  class 
room  he  was  the  picture  of  repose.  Nothing  ever 
ruffled  the  features  of  that  placid  face.  He  was 
calm,  deliberate,  quiet — too  quiet  to  interest  some — 
in  conversation  as  well  as  in  lecture.  He  pursued 
both  the  lecture  and  recitation  method.  He  loved 
to  call  upon  the  bright  men  to  recite.  There  were 
four  or  five  men  in  each  class  who  had  exceptional 
memories  and  who  studied  hard.  Upon  these  men 
he  would  call  almost  every  day.  He  gave  us  certain 
portions  of  his  own  large  volume,  "The  History  of 
the  Christian  Church,"  to  read  and  his  lectures 


GEOEGE  P.  FISHER  77 

generally  consisted  of  free  comment  upon  this  text. 
His  knowledge  was  beyond  belief.  There  seemed  to 
be  nothing  he  did  not  know.  Probably  no  student 
in  the  many  years  Professor  Fisher  taught  at  Yale 
ever  asked  him  a  question  he  could  not  answer.  His 
histories,  "The  History  of  the  Christian  Church," 
"The  History  of  Christian  Doctrine,"  and  "The 
History  of  the  Reformation,"  partake  of  this  defect 
as  well  as  of  this  excellence — they  are  so  packed 
with  fact  that  the  flow  of  style  is  impeded  and  the 
imagination  does  not  find  scope  for  free  play. 

And  Professor  Fisher  had  imagination.  When, 
as  frequently  happened  in  the  course  of  his  lectures, 
he  made  a  diversion  to  tell  of  his  visit  to  some 
famous  man,  no  one  could  be  more  delightful  or  weave 
a  finer  tissue  of  romance  about  a  story.  No  one  who 
heard  him  tell  about  his  day  with  Cardinal  Newman 
could  ever  forget  it.  He  also  told  us  about  his  hours 
with  the  great  German  scholars,  all  of  whom  he 
knew  intimately.  There  was  always  a  twinkle  in 
his  eyes  when  he  intimated  that  his  visits  generally 
made  them  reconsider  their  advanced  positions.  He 
loved  to  tell  about  his  private  audience  with  the 
Pope.  In  this  connection  he  always  related  the 
incident  of  his  answer  to  the  man  who,  speaking  of 
a  mutual  friend  who  had  been  offered  an  impossible 
position,  said:  "He  would  no  more  think  of  taking 
that  position  than  you  would  think  of  taking  the 
Papacy  were  it  offered  to  you."  "To  which  I  re- 
plied," said  Professor  Fisher,  "I  would  take  the 
Papacy  in  a  second  were  it  offered  to  me." 

Professor  Fisher  dearly  loved  a  good  story  and 


78  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

there  were  a  few  which  he  told  to  every  class  that 
passed  through  his  lecture  room.  One  of  these 
stories  was  so  funny  and  cast  such  a  true  light  on 
human  nature  that  it  invariably  passed  through  the 
whole  University  within  a  week  of  its  rehearsal.  It 
was  the  story  of  the  little  boy  who  was  taken  to  see 
a  famous  painting  of  the  early  Christians  being 
eaten  by  the  lions  in  the  arena.  Professor  Fisher  al- 
ways told  it  with  perfectly  placid  face:  "Things  do 
not  always  produce  just  the  impression  you  expect. 
Once  a  mother  took  her  little  boy  to  see  a  famous 
painting  of  the  early  Christian  being  torn  to  pieces 
by  the  lions  in  the  arena,  while  the  great  crowd  of 
Romans  was  looking  on  enjoying  the  sport.  The 
mother  thought  it  would  impress  upon  his  mind  for- 
ever the  heroism  of  the  early  Christians.  They 
stood  for  a  long  time  before  the  picture — the  child 
with  staring  eyes  and  open  mouth.  The  mother  was 
waiting  for  the  child  to  speak.  Then  he  spoke, 
pointing  with  his  finger  to  a  young  lion  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  picture.  He  said:  'Mother,  that  little 
lion  over  there  ain't  getting  any.'  " 

Returning  to  Professor  Fisher's  imagination: 
when  he  left  the  field  of  history  to  enter  the  domain 
of  theology,  philosophy  or  criticism,  his  style  was 
charming.  Not  only  was  it  lucid  and  forceful,  but 
it  partook  of  the  imaginative  element  in  the  highest 
degree.  It  appears  at  its  best  in  "The  Nature  and 
Method  of  Revelation."  This  book  is  charmingly 
written  and  the  appeal  is  to  the  ordinary  reader  as 
well  as  to  the  scholar.  Had  Professor  Fisher  devoted 
himself  to  philosophy  instead  of  to  history  he  would 


GEORGE  P.  FISHER  79 

have  ranked  high  among  American  philosophers. 
He  had  the  philosophic  cast  of  mind.  The  only 
question  is,  whether,  being  by  temperament  thor- 
oughly conservative,  he  would  have  had  the  daring 
to  launch  off  into  untried  fields  and  to  make  those 
flights  of  speculation  which  are  necessary  to  the 
philosopher  who  would  survey  the  whole  realms  and 
possibilities  of  human  thought.  Let  me  say  in  pass- 
ing that  he  loved  the  fantastical  and  the  uncanny. 
He  had  a  perfect  horde  of  ghost  stories  which  he  de- 
lighted in  relating  to  willing  listeners. 

Like  many  great  men  he  had  his  foibles.  He  was 
very  fond  of  bright  and  pretty  women  and  could 
make  himself  most  agreeable  to  them.  To  the  many 
dinner  parties  which  he  gave  in  his  charming  home 
on  Hillhouse  Avenue  to  great  men  visiting  the  Uni- 
versity he  always  took  pains  to  invite  two  or  three 
charming  young  women.  And  what  dinner  parties 
those  were!  What  talk  one  heard  there  from  great 
authors,  scholars,  preachers  and  historians.  Few 
rooms  have  echoed  to  a  more  engrossing  conversation 
than  the  book-lined  walls  of  the  big  library  where 
the  company  gathered  after  dinner.  But  while  he 
was  fond  of  the  company  of  delightful  women,  and 
felt  that  they  lent  necessary  charm  to  successful 
dinners  and  even  to  great  talk,  he  was  averse  to 
women  speaking  in  public.  I  doubt  if  he  ever  had 
a  very  exalted  opinion  of  women's  intellect,  when 
it  came  to  any  trial  of  sustained  thought.  It  was 
with  difficulty  that  he  could  be  persuaded  to  go  to 
hear  a  woman  speak  in  public.  The  story  is  told 
that  this  objection  was  finally  broken  down  by  the 


80  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

appearance  of  Mrs.  Ballington  Booth  in  one  of  the 
evening  services  of  the  United  Church  on  the  Green. 
He  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  supper  with  her 
at  Dr.  Hunger's  house,  and  then  had  come  to  church 
with  the  party.  The  church  was  packed  to  the  door, 
and  he  had  to  sit  in  one  of  the  pulpit  chairs.  I  can 
see  him  now,  sitting  in  the  big  chair,  with  his  black 
skull  cap  on  his  head,  enthralled  by  the  eloquence 
of  that  beautiful  and  wonderful  woman.  The  sequel 
is  more  interesting  still.  He  had  vehemently  op- 
posed the  appearance  of  women  in  the  College  Chapel 
on  one  or  two  occasions  when  it  had  been  suggested. 
But  when,  a  few  weeks  after  Mrs.  Booth  had  ap- 
peared in  the  United  Church,  it  was  proposed  that 
she  should  speak  in  the  Bethel  Chapel  before  the 
college  students,  Professor  Fisher  was  one  of  the 
warmest  advocates  of  her  appearance. 

For  several  years  Professor  Fisher  was  the  col- 
lege pastor.  His  sermons  were  greatly  enjoyed  by 
the  faculty,  and  by  the  most  thoughtful  students. 
But  the  preacher  was  a  little  too  reserved  and  quiet 
to  hold  the  attention  of  unthinking  boys,  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  himself  enjoyed  this  period  of  his 
life.  He  was  a  teacher  and  was  happiest  in  the 
class  room.  Yet  he  had  a  sympathetic  heart  for 
youth,  and  men  who  went  to  him  with  real  troubles 
found  him  a  very  kind  friend.  I  cannot  close  these 
recollections  of  him  without  giving  the  story  that 
was  told  of  him  when  he  was  Dean  of  the  Divinity 
School.  One  day  the  librarian  noticed  that  several 
books  were  missing  from  the  shelves.  A  few  days 
later  he  noticed  that  others  were  gone.  He  under- 


GEORGE  P.  FISHER  81 

took  a  little  detective  work  and  soon  caught  one  of 
the  divinity  students  in  the  act  of  taking  a  book. 
The  student  was  brought  before  the  faculty,  with 
Dean  Fisher  sitting  at  the  head  of  the  table.  The 
Dean  took  the  event  as  a  very  serious  matter.  He 
talked  to  the  young  man  in  a  fatherly  spirit,  but 
made  it  evident  that  he  thought  the  young  man's 
relations  with  the  seminary  should  cease.  Finally, 
he  turned  to  the  young  man  and  said :  "Why  did  you 
take  these  books  and  what  books  were  they?" 

The  young  man  answered,  confessing  that  he  had 
been  tempted  and  had  fallen,  and  saying  that  he 
repented  of  his  act:  "You  see  I  was  very  greatly 
interested  in  church  history  and  had  no  money  with 
which  to  buy  the  books.  So  I  took  them  from  the 
shelves.  They  were  mostly  books  by  you,  Professor 
Fisher." 

It  was  said  that  the  change  that  came  over  the  old 
man's  face  was  something  worth  seeing.  He  cleared 
his  throat  several  times  and  sent  the  young  man  out 
of  the  room  to  wait  outside.  The  moment  the  young 
man  had  closed  the  door  he  remarked:  "It  would  be 
a  pity  to  blight  this  young  man's  life  right  at  the 
beginning  because  of  this  first  offence,  and  I  think 
he  ought  to  be  given  another  chance."  It  was  the 
taste  he  displayed  in  books  that  saved  his  life. 


VIII 
ANDREW  M.  FAIRBAIRN 

UP  to  the  time  that  Dr.  Fairbairn  came  to  the 
Yale  Divinity  School  to  give  the  Lyman 
Beecher  Lectures,  I  had  met  only  two  great 
philosophers,  Rowland  Gibson  Hazard,  author  of  the 
great  book,  "Hazard  On  the  Will,"  and  Professor 
George  T.  Ladd,  whose  occasional  public  lectures  at 
Yale  University  I  had  eagerly  attended.  Philosophy 
had  always  had  a  peculiar  fascination  for  me,  so 
when  I  saw  the  announcement  that  Principal  Fair- 
bairn,  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  was  to  give 
eight  lectures  in  the  Divinity  School,  I  could  hardly 
wait  his  coming.  Although  I  was  only  a  college 
student  I  heard  every  one  of  the  eight  lectures,  be- 
sides his  great  sermon  in  the  College  Chapel.  I  was 
glad,  too,  to  discover  that  the  lectures  were  to  be 
theological,  rather  than  simply  on  the  preacher's 
art.  His  subject  was  "The  Place  of  Christ  in  Mod- 
ern Theology."  They  have  since  been  published 
and  they  hold  a  high  place  in  theological  literature. 
But,  as  printed,  they  can  never  make  quite  the  im- 
pression that  they  did  as  delivered  in  Marquand 
Chapel. 

It  is  a  Tuesday  afternoon.  The  professors  and 
the  students  are  in  the  middle  seats  of  the  pretty 
little  chapel — the  side  seats  are  filled  with  visitors, 

82 


ANDREW  M.  FAIRBAIRN  83 

while  fifty  or  more  people  are  standing  by  the  organ 
in  the  rear  of  the  chapel.  Promptly  at  three  the 
President  of  the  University  enters  through  the  little 
door  by  the  pulpit,  followed  by  a  Scotchman  in  the 
robes  of  a  doctor  of  divinity.  It  is  the  great  scholar 
from  Oxford.  The  head  and  face  are  very  striking. 
The  hair  is  reddish,  tinged  with  gray,  and  the  face 
is  covered  with  a  reddish  beard.  The  eyebrows  are 
closely  knit.  The  brow  is  the  scholar's  brow.  The 
first  word  denotes  the  Scotchman.  As  he  steps  into 
the  pulpit,  after  the  introduction  by  the  President, 
we  wait  for  him  to  place  his  lecture  on  the  desk  and 
read.  But  there  is  no  sign  of  paper  anywhere.  For 
a  whole  hour  he  plumbs  the  depths  of  thought,  scales 
heights  of  noblest  eloquence,  utters  sentence  after 
sentence,  perfect  in  form,  rich  in  content,  without 
pause  or  hesitation.  Through  eight  lectures  of  an 
hour  each  this  continues,  to  the  amazement  of  every 
one  present.  Sometimes  a  paragraph  of  rhapsody 
occurs  that  simply  dazes  the  hearers,  as  in  that  won- 
derful description  of  the  ascent  of  man  through  the 
evolutionary  process — his  identity  with  the  beast, 
then  his  wonderful  differentiation.  He  holds  the 
desk  tight,  with  a  hand  on  either  side  and  occasion- 
ally rises  on  tiptoe,  sways  back  and  forth  at  times, 
and  pours  forth  thought  which  other  great  thinkers 
produce  at  their  desk  with  painstaking  care.  (Pro- 
fessor George  T.  Ladd,  of  Yale,  has  this  same  ability 
of  thinking  on  his  feet.  As  I  recall  him  he  never 
read  a  lecture.)  It  is  all  wonderful,  amazing,  an 
exhibition  of  what  the  intellect,  when  touched  with 
greatness,  can  accomplish. 


84  THE  ONE  GEE  AT  SOCIETY 

The  sermon,  preached  in  the  University  Chapel  on 
the  first  Sunday  of  his  stay  in  New  Haven,  was 
equally  impressive  and  eloquent.  Many  of  the 
preachers  who  came  to  Battell  Chapel  felt  they  must 
talk  in  terms  of  the  campus,  or  the  athletic  field,  at 
least  use  simple  and  concrete  forms  of  thought. 
Not  so  this  doughty  warrior  of  the  faith,  this  Scotch 
philosopher  and  theologian.  There  were  no  sermon- 
ettes  in  his  make-up  and  no  twenty-minute  homilies. 
The  moment  he  started  outlining  his  sermon  at  the 
beginning — as  he  did — it  was  evident  that  we  were 
in  for  a  f orty-five-minute  sermon,  with  leanings  to- 
wards an  hour.  But  never  had  I  known  a  sermon 
more  enjoyed  by  those  two  thousand  boys,  never  had 
I  seen  them  more  interested.  For  nearly  an  hour 
he  reasoned  with  them  on  the  blessed  life.  The  ser- 
mon was  a  great  contention  that  real  satisfaction  in 
life  came  from  the  love  we  gave,  rather  than  from 
the  love  we  received.  There  was  no  courting  of 
popularity.  It  was  just  the  same  sermon  he  would 
have  preached  to  the  Philosophical  Society.  But 
the  men  were  held  by  the  sheer  greatness  of  thought, 
and  the  wonderful  personality  of  the  preacher — 
partly,  too,  by  the  intensity  of  it  all,  which  is  a 
great  secret  of  preaching.  It  is  hard  not  to  be  in- 
terested in  a  man  who  is  leaning  over,  looking  into 
your  face,  and  talking  with  all  his  soul  to  you.  In 
the  course  of  the  sermon  there  was  a  sudden  revela- 
tion of  the  dramatic  power  of  the  man.  He  told  the 
story  of  Silas  Marner,  how  his  salvation  came,  how 
he  found  life  again  when  he  had  to  tend  the  little 
child  left  by  its  poor  mother  at  the  door  of  his  hut. 


ANDBEW  M.  FAIBBAIBN  86 

I  have  never  heard  Battell  Chapel  so  quiet  before  or 
since,  as  during  those  five  minutes.  It  is  the  thinker 
after  all  who  holds  audiences  whether  the  audiences 
are  boys  or  men. 

While  he  was  in  New  Haven  I  took  matters  into 
my  own  hands  and  called  upon  him  one  day.  He 
seemed  very  glad  that  I  had  come.  "I  wish  more 
students  would  come  and  see  me,"  he  said.  I  told 
him  that  I  was  not  in  the  theological  school,  only  in 
the  college,  but  that  I  intended  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry. He  became  interested  at  once  and  began 
talking  about  the  need  of  ministers,  both  in  England 
and  America,  who  were  more  thoroughly  trained  in 
the  philosophy  of  religion.  Men  were  always  in- 
terested, he  said,  in  the  philosophy  of  life,  and  the 
preacher  should  always  think  his  way  through  to 
such  a  philosophy  of  life  under  the  Christian  revela- 
tion. He  also  said  something  which  I  believe  with 
all  my  heart,  that  the  average  man  is  very  much  in- 
terested in  philosophy.  He  said  that  there  was  a 
settlement  house  in  London  where  he  sometimes  went 
to  address  large  groups  of  working  men.  In  no 
other  subjects  did  they  show  such  keen  interest  as 
hi  philosophy,  or  in  religion,  when  presented  from 
its  philosophic  side.  He  thought  that  the  preacher 
should  be  a  teacher.  He  felt  sure  that  the  preachers 
would  be  much  more  sought  after  by  the  masses  if 
the  preachers  were  real  scholars  and  gave  courses  of 
sermons  on  the  greatest  themes  that  engaged  the 
human  mind.  He  instanced  Dr.  Dale,  Dr.  Chalmers, 
Canon  Liddon,  and  Dr.  Tulloch,  as  illustrations.  He 
did  not  know  how  it  was  in  America,  but  in  England 


86  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

the  most  popular  lectures  were  those  given  by  the 
greatest  scholars  of  the  kingdom.  "Let  one  of  the  big 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  professors  go  to  a  town  to 
lecture  and  everybody  turns  out  to  hear  him,  and 
the  more  he  challenges  their  intellect,  the  better  they 
like  him."  "There  is  great  danger  in  saying  too 
much  about  a  simple  gospel.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
religion  is  not  simple.  It  is  the  attempt  to  solve 
problems  that  have  baffled  the  ages.  We  Christians 
believe  we  have  found  the  solution,  but  we  must  be 
careful  lest  we  give  men  who  know  the  problem  of 
life  to  be  vast,  perplexing,  many  sided,  fhe  idea  that 
we  do  not  realize  its  greatness,  and  do  not  realize 
that  the  answer  must  be  as  vast  and  profound  as  the 
question."  It  was  a  very  interesting  visit  and  I 
have  always  been  glad  I  had  that  twenty  minutes 
with  one  of  the  great  scholars  of  our  day. 

It  was  in  1899  that  I  saw  Dr.  Fairbairn  again. 
This  time  it  was  in  Boston  at  the  International  Con- 
gregational Council.  It  was  a  great  gathering  and 
many  eminent  men  of  Great  Britain  and  America 
were  there.  Some  of  the  ablest  addresses  I  have 
heard  were  delivered  at  that  gathering.  But  Prin- 
cipal Fairbairn  *s  sermon  and  Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs' 
address  on  Missions  stirred  me  most.  It  was  such  a 
treat  to  hear  really  great  preaching — the  kind  one 
reads  about,  but  so  rarely  hears ;  the  kind  that  stirs 
one  like  great  music,  that  opens  up  big  vistas,  that 
takes  one  up  and  surrounds  one  with  a  cloud  of  glory, 
that  makes  the  brain  rejoice.  We  heard  great 
preaching  that  Tuesday  night,  an  hour  and  a  half  of 
it.  It  was  in  the  Tremont  Temple.  There  is  a  brass 


ANDEEW  M.  FAIEBAIEN  87 

rail  running  across  the  platform  on  either  side  of 
the  desk.  Dr.  Fairbairn  seized  upon  it  with  delight, 
grasping  it  with  both  hands  and  sort  of  balancing 
himself  upon  it  part  of  the  time.  The  sermon  was 
on  "The  Idea  of  the  Church,"  and  dealt  with  such 
subjects  as  the  composition  of  the  Church,  the  in- 
visible Church  and  the  visible  Churches,  the  con- 
descension of  Christ  in  consenting  to  live  in  the 
Church,  Christ  sovereign  in  the  Church,  the  repro- 
duction of  Christ  in  His  Church,  by  its  functions  and 
its  acts.  What  a  joy  it  was  to  sit  just  below  the 
preacher  and  see  the  great  brain  working,  as  it  were. 
And  I  wonder  if  many  ever  heard  a  more  spontaneous 
burst  of  real  eloquence  than  that  paragraph  on  the 
condescension  of  Christ.  The  audience  could  hardly 
contain  itself.  Even  when  read  the  greatness  re- 
mains. Note  how,  in  twenty  lines,  the  whole  fabric 
of  sectarian  arrogation  on  which  our  great  divisions 
rest,  is  made  absurd  and  ridiculous : 

"You  see,  then,  that  there  is  the  magnanimity  of 
Christ — He  consents  to  live  in  communities  that 
vainly  call  themselves  Presbyterian  or  Independent, 
Baptist  or  Methodist,  and  there  is  still  greater 
humility  in  His  being  ready  to  dwell  in  proud  com- 
munities which  speak  of  themselves  as  imperial,  in- 
fallible or  apostolic.  Oh,  I  sometimes  think  that  the 
hardest  text  in  Scripture  is,  'He  that  sitteth  in  the 
heavens  shall  laugh.'  If  there  be  divine  laughter, 
must  it  not  often  be  at  the  follies  of  men  who  think 
that  they  hold  God  in  their  custody  and  distribute 
Him  to  whomsoever  they  will?  The  last  apostasy 
is  to  be  insolent  to  the  humblest  member  of  Christ's 


88  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

body.  His  highest  and  most  condescending  grace  is 
manifested  in  consenting  to  abide  in  communities 
too  proud  to  regard  the  Christian  brotherhood. 
There  He  reigns  in  them  all,  tolerating  their  very 
errors  for  the  sake  of  the  loving  works  they  do. 
And  yet  how  sad  it  must  be  when  He  who  loves  to 
see  the  travail  of  His  soul  is  forced  to  see  this  per- 
f ervid  profanity  of  man  daring  to  put  time  into  the 
eternal,  to  bind  immensity  to  a  little  spot  in  space, 
and  to  tie  the  holy  and  divine  infinitude  of  grace  to 
some  fallible  doctrines  of  mortal  man!" 

The  fact  of  Dr.  Fairbairn  being  present  at  the 
Council  brought  together  a  larger  assembly  than 
usual,  and  the  advantage  of  his  presence  had  to  be 
seized.  One  session  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  the 
distinctive  characteristics  of  Christianity — the  char- 
acteristics that  differentiated  it  from  other  religions. 
Of  all  men  present,  Dr.  Fairbairn  was  the  man  to 
treat  this  subject.  Not  only  had  he  made  com- 
parative religion  a  lifelong  study;  but  he  had  also 
lectured  in  India  and  held  conferences  there  with 
the  leaders  of  Hindu  thought.  His  address  on  ' '  The 
Influence  of  the  Study  of  Other  Religions  Upon 
Christian  Theology"  was  one  of  the  most  illuminat- 
ing heard  at  the  Council.  His  conclusions  as  ex- 
pressed in  his  closing  words  made  a  deep  impression 
and  are  worthy  of  being  recalled.  They  were  as 
follows : 

"If  there  is  any  one  lesson  more  than  another  the 
religions  of  the  world  teach  us,  it  is  this :  Leave  man 
with  something  to  do  to  propitiate  God,  and  he  will 
devise  rites  and  follow  practices  which  will  at  once 


ANDKEW  M.  FAIKBAIKBT  89 

lower  God  in  the  eye  of  reason,  deprave  his  own 
conscience,  undignify  his  own  nature,  and  transform 
the  main  instrument  of  his  elevation  into  the  main 
agent  of  his  deterioration  and  decay.  This  is  no 
rash  generalization:  it  is  simple,  stern,  indubitable 
fact.  The  rites  of  appeasement  or  propitiation  are 
in  all  religions  the  focus  of  the  forces  that  materialize 
and  deprave." 

"But  how  does  this  affect  Christian  theology!  It 
brings  out  the  contrast  of  its  one  sacrifice  to  all 
sacrifices.  God  takes  it  out  of  the  hands  of  man  and 
offers  it  Himself.  Its  qualities  are  all  ethical,  for 
they  are  all  of  Him.  And  He  offers  it  once  for  all. 
It  can  never  be  repeated,  man  can  never  share  it,  it 
stands  in  its  divine  solitude  an  object  of  faith, 
capable  of  acceptance,  incapable  of  repetition.  And 
so  there  is  satisfied  man's  deep  need  of  reconciliation 
with  God,  while  he  is  saved  from  the  evils  incident 
to  buying  the  reconciliation  on  his  own  terms  and  in 
his  own  way.  To  have  made  evident  the  gain  to 
religion  by  the  abolition,  through  God's  own  act  and 
His  Son's  obedience  of  all  propitiatory  rites  and 
sacrifices,  may  be  classed  as  the  last  and  most  noble 
achievement  of  our  comparative  study  of  religions." 

By  far  the  liveliest  incident  of  the  Council  was 
the  fierce  onset  upon  the  theological  seminaries  made 
by  President  William  DeWitt  Hyde,  of  Bowdoin 
College,  and  President  William  P.  Slocum,  of  Colo- 
rado College.  The  whole  method  of  instruction  was 
characterized  as  antiquated,  the  lecture  system 
prevalent  in  most  of  them  was  useless  as  a  means  of 
real  instruction,  the  students  were  not  encouraged 


90  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

in  individual  investigation  or  in  initiative,  there  was 
no  real  mental  discipline,  the  subjects  taught  had 
little  real  bearing  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
the  real  subjects,  such  as  ethics,  sociology,  biology, 
the  tendencies  of  modern  thought,  and  the  great 
literatures  of  the  world  were  neglected,  with  the 
result  that  the  churches  were  being  served  by  a  lot 
of  half  educated  men.  Here  are  a  few  sentences 
from  President  Hyde's  address  which  are  typical: 
''Our  seven  seminaries  have  plants  aggregating  in 
value  $1,600,000.  They  have  endowment  funds 
amounting  to  more  than  $4,000,000.  They  have  an 
annual  income  of  $233,000.  They  have  only  299 
students  of  whom  sixty-four  are  taught  in  special 
departments  where  foreign  languages  are  used,  leav- 
ing only  235  English-speaking  students  on  whom  the 
bulk  of  $233,000  is  expended  annually.  Yet,  with 
nearly  $1,000  to  spend  on  each  man  every  year,  how 
meagre  and  pitiful  the  educational  result.  A  little 
Hebrew,  which  is  speedily  forgotten;  Greek  enough 
to  render  the  commentary  intelligible;  and  three 
note  books,  one  full  of  unverified  church  history,  an- 
other full  of  unassimilated  dogmatics,  a  third  full 
of  unapplied  homilitical  suggestions  about  as  prac- 
tical as  instructions  for  swimming  given  to  a  man 
in  a  two  by  four  bath-tub :  This  is  about  the  sum  and 
substance  of  the  theological  education  men  have 
taken  with  them  from  the  seminaries  in  years  gone 
by.  What  wonder  that  every  minister  you  talk  with 
speaks  with  righteous  indignation  of  the  utterly  in- 
adequate equipment  he  received. ' '  To  say  that  these 
addresses  were  irritating  is  to  use  a  mild  expression. 


ANDEEW  M.  FAIKBAIBN  91 

They  stirred  up  the  one  really  heated  debate  of  the 
Council.  And  the  fact  that  everybody  knew  that 
there  was  some  truth  in  the  accusations  made  the 
brethren  more  indignant  still.  Finally  Dr.  Fair- 
bairn,  as  President  of  the  Theological  School  in  Ox- 
ford (Mansfield  College),  was  called  upon  and  he 
spent  twenty  minutes  putting  the  other  side.  And 
he  put  it  very  decidedly,  much  to  the  joy  of  that 
section  of  the  Council  that  had  been  offended  by  Dr. 
Hyde's  and  Dr.  Slocum's  addresses.  While  my  own 
sympathies  were  somewhat  with  our  American 
friends,  I  greatly  enjoyed  hearing  this  witty  Scotch- 
man say  what  he  thought  of  Dr.  Hyde's  accusations. 
As  one  who  had  been  giving  his  life  to  the  prepar- 
ing of  men  for  the  ministry  he  was  not  inclined  to 
accept  the  arraignment ;  he  said : ' '  I  can  hardly  con- 
ceive that  seminaries  in  America  should  be  in  such 
a  state  of  unrelieved  impotence.  Then  I  further 
differ,  and  radically,  from  him  in  his  intimation  that 
theology  is  such  a  poor  subject  that  you  must  bring 
in  English  literature  and  sociology  and  Hegelian 
ethics  and  other  rudimentary  things,  in  order  to  help 
it  out.  No ;  if  a  seminary  starts  out  to  teach  theology, 
will  it  have  time  to  turn  aside  into  the  playground 
and  make  all  manner  of  fanciful  digressions  and  en- 
croach on  the  domain  of  the  professors  of  art  or  the 
professors  of  economics?  No!  Before  you  drill  a 
man  in  the  Old  Testament  and  its  tongue,  before 
you  drill  a  man  in  the  New  Testament  and  its  tongue, 
before  you  drill  a  man  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
and  its  doctrine,  before  you  drill  a  man  in  the  appre- 
hension of  that  doctrine,  before  you  pass  him  over 


92  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

the  history  of  religions  and  the  philosophy  that  would 
interpret  their  history,  before  you  oblige  him  to 
stand  face  to  face  with  all  the  deepest  questions  that 
can  engage  the  mind  of  man,  you  will  find  that  you 
will  have  so  taxed  him  as  indeed  to  bring  him  to  that 
high  and  noble  education  which  comes  from  facing 
the  greatest  things  in  the  most  sober  and  earnest 
spirit."  It  was  a  good  thing  that  the  controversy 
arose  in  the  Council.  It  was  reflected  in  the  press 
for  many  months,  and  no  doubt  had  much  to  do  with 
that  reshaping  and  enlarging  of  the  curriculum  of 
the  theological  seminaries  that  has  been  going  on 
during  the  past  fifteen  years. 

My  last  glimpse  of  President  Fairbairn  was  when 
he  came  to  New  York  University  to  give  the  Deems' 
Lectures. 

These  lectures  were  published  a  few  years  after 
their  delivery  in  a  volume  containing  various  other 
lectures  and  addresses  dealing  mostly  with  the 
Church.  They  attracted  wide  attention  at  the  time 
and  hundreds  of  clergymen  came  to  hear  them.  Per- 
haps no  other  lecturer  had  drawn  together  quite  so 
distinguished  a  group  of  ministers  for  many  years. 
One  could  see  men  of  world-wide  reputation  which- 
ever way  one  turned.  Again  the  lecturer  over- 
whelmed his  audience  with  the  pure  force  of  his 
commanding  intellect,  the  inexhaustible  store  of 
knowledge.  The  lectures  dealt  largely  with  the 
character  and  teaching  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  John, 
and  although  the  lecturer  did  not  have  even  notes 
before  him,  he  quoted  almost  everything  the  apostles 
had  written  and  occasionally  indulged  in  utterances 


ANDBEW  M.  FAIEBAIEN  93 

of  cogent  reasoning  and  flights  of  eloquence  that 
seemed  impossible  apart  from  the  written  word.  I 
think  I  have  never  listened  to  any  other  man  who 
so  impressed  me  with  sheer  brain  power.  I  heard 
him  almost  every  time  he  spoke  in  his  three  visits 
to  America. 

One  passage  in  these  lectures  still  stands  out  in 
my  memory,  both  because  of  its  characterization  of 
St.  Paul  and  because  of  its  testimony  to  the  uni- 
versality of  revelation.  Let  me  quote  it  in  closing 
this  chapter: 

"We  do  not  regard  Paul  as  either  an  accident  or 
a  special  creation  of  Deity.  He  belongs  to  the  order 
we  know ;  nature  could  not  have  been  complete  with- 
out him,  nor  could  he  have  been  without  nature. 
The  mind  he  possessed  made  him  the  apostle  he  be- 
came; the  faith  he  preached  embodied  his  ideas. 
He  translated  the  religion  of  Jesus  which  was  per- 
sonal, into  the  religion  of  Christ  which  was  universal. 
He  is  to  us,  then,  a  man  who  has  heard  the  call  of 
God ;  and  his  call  can  assume  many  forms.  It  may 
come  through  a  man  and  be  sealed  by  a  council,  or 
may  be  incarnated  in  a  vision  which  no  one  can  see 
save  him  whose  vision  it  is,  or  in  a  voice  which  can  be 
heard  by  no  other  ear  than  by  an  ear  attuned  and 
listening;  but  however  it  may  come,  the  one  thing 
essential  is: — it  descends  from  God.  Because  of  its 
original  source,  it  has  an  authority  so  sovereign  and 
ultimate  that  neither  man  nor  council  can  cancel  it. 
Its  effect  is  to  make  the  new  man  equal  to  work  the 
old  man  never  could  have  performed.  It  coordinates 
energies  that  had,  by  contending  against  each  other, 


94  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

paralyzed  his  strength.  Where  God  has  once  spoken 
He  can  again  speak ;  where  He  has  been  welcomed  He 
neither  ceases  to  visit  nor  grow  weary.  The  call  is 
no  miracle;  it  happens  in  conformity  with  the  per- 
sonal capacity  of  the  man;  his  social  environment 
and  history  are  its  antecedents.  It  comes,  not  like  a 
flash  out  of  a  cloudless  heaven ;  but  is  rather  like  the 
creative  word,  which  was  never  so  natural  as  when 
it  took  shape  in  plants  and  animals  and  men,  bidding 
each  be  and  bear  fruit  after  its  kind." 


IX 
BARONESS  BERTHA  VON  SUTTNER 

AMONG  all  the  distinguished  men  and  women 
of  whom  I  have  been  writing  in  these  chap- 
ters the  Baroness  von  Siittner  certainly  had 
lived  the  most  romantic  life.  From  childhood  to  old 
age  she  moved  continually  in  the  center  of  great 
movements,  took  part  in  momentous  events,  visited 
all  countries,  and  was  on  familiar  terms  with  all  the 
great  men  and  women  of  the  last  sixty  years.  Her 
memoirs,  published  in  two  large  volumes  by  Ginn 
and  Company,  make  more  interesting  reading  than 
almost  any  historical  novel  I  have  known — and  they 
have  all  the  prime  ingredients  of  a  lively  story, 
thwarted  love,  elopements,  blissful  years  in  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Caucasus,  long  years  in  court  circles 
and  palaces,  acquaintanceship  with  the  geniuses  and 
the  mighty,  participation  in  all  the  political  and 
international  movements  of  the  time.  And  they  are 
so  charmingly,  frankly,  intimately  written  that  one 
quickly  falls  in  love  with  the  writer,  and  does  not 
wonder  that  the  young  von  Siittner  completely  lost 
his  head  after  a  few  days  of  acquaintanceship,  and 
ran  away  with  the  beautiful  governess. 

Baroness  Bertha  von  Siittner  was  born  in  1843  in 
Prague.    Her  father,  Count  Kinsky  of  Clunic  and 

95 


96  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

Tetlau,  died  when  she  was  a  little  child  and  for 
several  years  the  Countess  Kinsky  spent  her  time 
passing  from  one  city  to  another,  and  one  pleasure 
to  another.  She  lived  in  Vienna,  Paris  (where  she 
studied  voice  culture),  Hamburg,  Baden,  and  other 
cities  and  met  every  one  of  account  in  court,  opera, 
theatre,  literature  and  the  Church.  She  was 
presented  at  court  and  had  many  admirers.  In 
1872  she  became  engaged  to  Prince  Witt-Gaustein 
and  in  connection  with  this  came  her  first  great 
sorrow.  He  died  while  crossing  the  Atlantic  to 
America. 

This  catastrophe  meant  that  the  young  Countess, 
who  had  title  and  family  but  little  money,  had  now 
to  consider  the  means  of  living.  She  was  thirty,  had 
perfect  command  of  four  languages,  had  achieved 
considerable  reputation  as  a  singer — what  could  she, 
a  Countess,  turn  to  ?  Hardly  had  She  given  the  mat- 
ter a  thought  before  she  was  invited  to  become  a 
member  of  the  family  of  the  baronial  house  of 
Siittner.  Here  the  care  and  instruction  of  four 
beautiful  grown-up  daughters  were  committed  to 
her.  It  was  a  very  happy  life  they  all  lived  together 
until  Arthur  von  Siittner,  the  handsome,  irresistible, 
high-minded  son  of  the  family,  aged  twenty-three, 
appeared  on  the  scene.  Three  or  four  picnics  are 
enough,  evidently,  to  make  them  both  madly  in  love 
with  each  other.  But  she  is  thirty  and  poor,  while 
he  is  only  twenty-three  and  can  marry  any  of  the 
richest  girls  at  court.  The  family  evidently  are 
counting  on  his  doing  that  and  the  young  Countess 
prepares  to  leave.  She  sees  an  advertisement  in  a 


BAEONESS  BEETHA  VON  StTTTNEE      97 

Paris  paper  where  "a  very  wealthy,  cultured  elderly 
gentleman  living  in  Paris,  desires  to  find  a  lady  also 
of  mature  years,  familiar  with  languages,  as  secre- 
tary and  manager  of  his  household. ' '  The  Countess 
Kinsky  did  not  stop  to  weigh  the  question  of  ma- 
turity. She  was  in  a  hurry.  She  wrote — so  she 
tells  us  in  her  autobiography — at  once,  telling  her 
story.  She  got  a  reply  signed  "Alfred  Nobel." 

Here  was  another  one  of  those  mysterious  work- 
ings of  chance — or  was  it  Providence  ? — that  brought 
together  these  two  kindred  souls.  For  the  great 
scientist  had  already  reached  that  detestation  of  war 
as  a  method  of  determining  right  and  wrong  or 
as  a  means  of  advancing  civilization  which  marked 
all  his  later  career.  At  the  time  the  young  Countess 
Kinsky  went  to  him  at  Paris  he  was  lonely,  melan- 
choly, somewhat  at  a  loss  what  to  do  with  his  vast 
fortune  and  intent  on  inventing  some  horrible  ma- 
chine that  would  make  war  utterly  impossible.  The 
Countess  did  not  stay  with  him  long,  for  the  love 
between  young  von  Siittner  and  herself  was  so  great 
that  they  could  not  remain  apart.  Hardly  had  she 
reached  Paris  before  she  received  a  telegram  from 
her  sweetheart  from  Vienna,  ''I  cannot  live  without 
thee."  This  was  too  much  for  her.  She  jumped 
on  the  train  for  Vienna,  and  rushed  into  von  Siitt- 
ner's  arms.  They  were  secretly  married  and  then 
went  off  to  live  in  the  Caucasus,  where  the  Baroness 
had  many  relatives  and  friends. 

Any  one  who  wishes  to  read  of  those  nine  idyllic 
years  in  the  Caucasus  can  do  so  in  the  autobiography. 
It  was  simply  like  a  fairy  story.  In  1885  the  von 


98  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

Siittner  family,  having  for  some  time  realized  that 
their  son  had  made  an  ideal  marriage,  and  really 
liking  the  young  Baroness  in  the  bottom  of  their 
hearts,  insisted  on  their  returning  home  to  live  at 
the  castle  at  Harmannsdorf.  There  were  great  cele- 
brations upon  their  return,  but  a  change  was  coming 
over  the  Baroness.  The  acquaintance  with  Alfred 
Nobel  had  ripened  into  a  correspondence.  A  revul- 
sion against  war  was  rising,  she  hardly  knew  how  or 
why,  in  her  own  breast.  Meantime  she  worked  away 
on  her  first  two  books,  which  appeared  in  due  season, 
"Romance  of  an  Author"  and  "The  Age  of  Ma- 
chinery." When  these  were  finished  she  and  her 
husband  went  to  Paris  to  live  for  a  few  weeks. 
Here  as  they  went  from  reception  to  reception,  meet- 
ing nightly  the  great  statesmen,  poets,  dramatists, 
actors,  artists  and  the  women  famous  as  conversa- 
tionalists and  manipulators  of  men,  they  found  that 
the  conversation  was  only  of  war,  revenge,  strategy, 
national  ambition,  with  the  sword  as  instrument. 
Baroness  von  Siittner  had  found  the  same  thing  in 
the  Austrian  capital.  War  was  the  chief  business  of 
a  nation.  Any  sense  of  its  contradiction  of  all  the 
high  impulses  of  brotherhood  held  by  the  founders 
of  our  religion,  or  any  sense  of  antagonism  between 
aggressive  or  revengeful  war  and  the  whole  spirit 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  seemed  utterly  lacking 
in  the  world,  outside  a  few  select  souls  to  whom  she 
was  already  being  drawn,  Nobel,  Renan,  Tolstoy, 
Passy,  Bremer,  Mirzy,  Schaffer  the  artist,  Hodgson, 
Pratt,  Professor  Virchow  and  others.  For  in  every 
country  in  Europe  the  vision  of  a  new  international 


BAEONESS  BEETHA  VON  SUTTNEE      99 

order  was  dawning.  She  talked  much  with  Nobel. 
The  result  of  this  visit  to'Paris  was  the  sudden  birth 
in  her  mind  of  a  book  against  war.  She  rushed  back 
to  her  castle  at  Harmannsdorf  and  wrote  the  now 
famous  novel,  "Die  Waff  en  Nieder,"  or  "Away  with 
Weapons."  The  titles  given  various  English  trans- 
lations are  misleading.  ' '  Throw  Down  Your  Arms, ' ' 
"Lay  Down  Your  Arms,"  "Ground  Arms" — none 
of  these  conveys  the  real  idea  of  the  book,  which  is 
away  from  arms  as  a  means  of  settling  international 
disputes  to  courts  of  justice,  parliaments  of  nations, 
federations  of  powers  in  friendly  community  en- 
deavour. In  a  copy  of  the  book  which  she  gave  me 
in  1908,  when  I  met  her  in  London,  she  has  brought 
out  this  juxtaposition  of  ideas  by  the  autograph 
inscription :  "Lay  down  your  arms,  but  take  up  your 
arms  in  the  war  waged  on  all  evil — Bertha  von  Siitt- 
ner." 

"Die  Waff  en  Nieder"  is  a  novel  written  in  the  first 
person,  purporting  to  be  "The  autobiography  of 
Martha  von  Tilling."  It  is  a  novel  pure  and  simple 
and  its  author  never  endured  the  horrible  agonies 
described  in  the  book.  But  so  sympathetic  was  her 
artistic  nature  with  the  great  burden  of  the  world 
that  everybody  supposed  it  to  be  the  story  of  her 
own  experiences.  It  was  a  great  question  as  to  how 
it  would  be  received.  For  it  is  as  terrible  an  in- 
dictment of  war  as  is  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  of  sla- 
very. And  the  war  habit  and  the  belief  in  war  as  an 
eternal  and  fundamental  institution  were  universal, 
while  slavery  was  defended  only  by  a  part  of  man- 
kind. The  Baroness  once  told  me  about  her  first 


100  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

experience  with  publishers.  She  had  freed  her  soul 
in  the  book  and  when  she  came  to  the  end  the  ques- 
tion at  once  arose:  "Will  any  one  in  Europe  dare 
publish  it?"  She  sent  the  manuscript  to  that  great 
magazine  which  published  her  other  books  serially 
and  got  this  note  back  at  once:  "It  is  with  regret 
that  we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  return  your 
manuscript.  Many  of  our  readers  would  take  of- 
fence at  what  it  contains."  She  tried  one  editor 
after  another — none  of  them  dared  touch  it.  To 
attack  war  as  an  institution  was  the  same  as  attack- 
ing Christianity  itself.  Finally  she  sent  the  book 
to  the  publisher  of  her  previous  books,  abandoning 
all  hope  of  getting  it  into  a  magazine.  He  was 
aghast  at  it.  The  book  seemed  to  him  incendiary, 
dangerous.  It  might  even  come  under  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  state  as  revealing  mutiny  against  existing 
institutions.  He  advised  the  author  at  least  to  sub- 
mit the  manuscript  to  some  leading  statesmen  for 
judgment  and  for  modification.  The  Baroness 
would  not  budge  an  inch,  and  finally  Pierson  yielded. 
She  said  it  was  pitiable  to  see  him  as  the  first  issues 
were  put  on  the  market.  He  thought  only  a  few 
would  be  bought  anyhow,  but  that  those  few  would 
bring  the  universe  down  upon  him.  They  did,  but 
not  as  he  expected.  To  the  surprise  of  himself, 
Baroness  von  Siittner  and  everybody  else  the  book 
sold  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  Five  different 
translations  were  made  in  Russia,  and  it  appeared 
in  English,  French,  Scandinavian  translations  before 
a  year  was  up.  It  put  her  at  the  front  in  the  great 
movement  which  now  numbers  presidents  and  prime 


BARONESS  BEETHA  VON  StfTTNER    101 

ministers  among  its  leaders  at  a  time  when  only  a 
prophet  here  and  there  had  raised  his  voice.  One 
can  find  in  this  book  and  in  her  other  writings  the 
seeds  of  all  that  President  Wilson,  Mr.  Taft,  Lloyd 
George,  Mr.  Asquith  and  Lord  Bryce  are  now  saying 
in  every  utterance.  Henceforth  she  was  a  prominent 
figure  in  every  international  gathering,  in  every 
peace  conference,  and  she  did  much  to  establish  the 
Interparliamentary  Union  in  Europe. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Baroness  von  Siitt- 
ner  many  times,  both  in  Europe  and  America.  When 
the  Second  Hague.  Conference  convened  in  1907  the 
various  peace  organizations  of  the  world  decided  to 
send  delegates  to  The  Hague  to  express  to  the  Con- 
ference the  sympathy  of  the  vast  numbers  of  people 
in  every  land  with  the  great  task  they  were  under- 
taking, namely,  the  substitution  of  judicial  processes 
for  war  in  the  settlement  of  international  disputes. 
Professor  Samuel  T.  Dutton,  Dr.  Hamilton  Holt  and 
I  were  sent  by  the  New  York  Peace  Society.  When 
we  arrived  at  The  Hague  we  found  representatives  of 
similar  organizations  from  our  own  country  and 
from  some  of  the  countries  of  Europe.  This  little 
group  soon  formed  the  habit  of  meeting  day  by  day 
to  talk  over  what  was  being  done  by  the  official 
Conference  of  the  nations,  and  also  to  formulate 
questions  we  wished  to  have  the  Conference  consider, 
and,  having  formulated  them,  we  considered  means 
to  urge  upon  the  Conference  their  adoption.  Will- 
iam T.  Stead  was  there,  and  was  editing  a  daily 
paper  dealing  with  the  proceedings  of  the  Confer- 
ence. This  paper  became  a  sort  of  organ  of  our 


102  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

opinions  and  brought  them — at  least  we  hoped  it 
did — to  the  attention  of  the  Conference.  Of  all  who 
attended  these  daily  meetings  Baroness  von  Siitt- 
ner  stood  out  most  prominently.  She  was  radiantly 
happy,  and  prolific  in  suggestion.  At  last  the  things 
for  which  she  had  been  contending  for  years,  arbitra- 
tion treaties,  a  world  court,  international  friendship 
and  cooperation,  the  limitation  of  armaments,  the 
community  of  nations,  the  bringing  up  of  interna- 
tional relationships  out  of  the  world  of  pagan  princi- 
ples to  that  high  ethical  and  Christian  level  on  which 
the  relationship  of  individuals  moved,  seemed  about 
to  be  realized.  As  the  Conference  adopted  or  par- 
tially adopted  these  new  and  revolutionary  principles 
and  schemes,  one  after  another,  she  was  almost  beside 
herself  with  joy.  The  chief  obstacle  to  every  step 
forward  towards  these  ends  was  Germany.  Germany 
seemed  actually  bewildered  at  the  steps  taken  and 
became  frightened.  There  were  Germans  enough 
who  rejoiced,  but  the  government  held  back.  Bar- 
oness von  Siittner,  with  her  wide  acquaintance  with 
German  officials,  was  able  to  render  great  service  at 
this  point.  Hardly  a  day  went  by  that  she  did  not 
engage  the  German  and  Austrian  delegates  in  con- 
versation, and  no  one  can  ever  accurately  measure 
the  service  she  rendered  in  this  regard. 

I  saw  a  great  deal  of  the  Baroness  during  these 
days.  It  was  an  inspiration  for  a  lifetime  to  come 
in  contact  with  her  unwavering  faith.  I  remember 
so  well  a  conversation  with  her  one  evening  in  the 
hotel.  In  substance  she  said:  "Whether  what  we 
are  after  in  life  come  soon  or  late,  that  is  not  the 


BAEONESS  BEETHA  VON  SUTTNEE    103 

point.  If  a  thing  is  right  it  is  one's  duty  to  urge 
it  day  and  night,  whether  the  world  heed  or  not. 
When  I  wrote  Die  Waff  en  Nieder  I  was  almost  alone 
in  Austria  and  Germany.  But  I  did  not  care.  I 
had  had  a  task  laid  upon  me  and  my  only  concern 
was  to  perform  it.  I  have  lived  to  see  thousands 
come  around  to  my  point  of  view  and  I  have  lived 
to  see  this — the  nations  themselves  assembled  to  dis- 
cuss the  things  I  urged.  But  I  should  have  spoken 
my  message  just  the  same  even  had  no  one  heeded. 
To  speak  the  new  truth  is  its  own  reward.  No  one 
realizes  the  magnitude  of  the  obstacles  in  our  way 
more  than  I.  You  can  never  feel  them  as  I  do,  for 
I  have  grown  up  in  the  heart  of  militarism.  In 
Central  Europe  it  is  as  much  a  creed  as  Christianity 
itself.  In  America  it  is  not  a  creed.  But  my  faith 
and  hope  are  as  strong  as  yours.  If  I  can  have 
faith,  it  ought  to  be  easy  for  you.  The  mere  fact 
though  that  the  nations  have  come  together  even  to 
discuss  these  things  is  more  than  any  of  us  dreamed 
possible  twenty  years  ago.  And  when  the  people  be- 
gin to  question  an  institution  that  is  the  beginning 
of  its  end." 

She  talked  much  along  these  lines  and  it  gave 
high  courage  to  us  all.  It  has  sustained  many  of  us 
during  these  four  years  of  testing.  But  we  are 
seeing  several  of  the  nations  turning  towards  her 
principles  as  the  hope  of  the  world.  When  I  hear 
Mr.  Asquith  saying  that  there  is  no  hope  for  the 
future  civilization  of  Europe  except  in  a  partnership 
of  nations,  and  when  I  read  President  Wilson 's  mes- 
sages saying  that  the  issue  of  this  war  must  be  a 


104  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

concert  of  friendly  nations  pledged  to  keep  the  peace 
of  the  world,  I  think  of  her,  and  sometimes,  when  I 
am  glad  she  was  spared  the  agony  of  these  years,  I 
also  wish  she  might  have  lived  to  hear  the  statesmen 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States  proclaiming  her  dreams  as  the  realities  that 
must  now  come. 

I  saw  much  of  her  at  the  International  Peace 
Congresses  held  in  Munich  in  1907  and  in  London 
in  1908.  I  remember  one  afternoon  when  several 
of  us  were  having  tea  together  some  one  ventured  to 
express  a  criticism  of  these  congresses  on  the  ground 
that  representation  in  them  was  not  broad  enough. 
They  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  cult,  and  had 
lost  much  of  their  influence  for  that  reason.  Her 
eyes  flashed  fire  as  she  exclaimed:  "And  what  move- 
ment ever  stirred  the  world  which  did  not  originate 
in  a  cult?  Was  there  ever  so  much  of  a  cult  as  the 
early  Christians?  Were  they  not  for  years  just  a 
little  cult  of  enthusiasts?  Were  they  not  even  con- 
sidered a  band  of  fanatics  and  dreamers,  as  we  are 
called  to-day?  Was  it  not  just  that  unity  of  the 
message,  the  unity  that  can  be  found  only  in  a  cult, 
that  gave  it  its  invincible  power?  As  for  me,  I 
believe  that  a  few  of  us  who  believe,  giving  forth  an 
unqualified  message  and  an  uncompromising  ideal, 
are  more  of  a  power  in  Europe  than  any  group, 
embracing  half-believers  and  sending  forth  a  quali- 
fied message  and  pious  generalities,  could  ever  be." 
There  is  much  to  be  said  for  her  point  of  view. 

It  was  in  Munich  that  she  showed  me  the  article 
•which  she  wrote  in  January,  1892,  about  the  Interna- 


BAEONESS  BEETHA  VON  SUTTNEE    105 

tional  Peace  Congress  at  Eome — showed  to  me 
principally  because  it  quoted  certain  words  which 
she  thought  among  the  finest  that  had  ever  been 
uttered,  words  spoken  by  Ruggero  Bonghi  at  the 
closing  session.  They  echoed  what  was  always  in 
her  own  soul,  and  they  are  very  beautiful  and  full 
of  faith: 

"Let  us  keep  ever  before  our  eyes  the  sacred  pur- 
pose which  we  have  set  before  us;  let  us  work  with 
such  fiery  zeal  as  if  the  attainment  of  this  depended 
wholly  on  us,  and  as  if  we  could  attain  it  even  to- 
morrow. If  others  hinder  us,  then  it  is  not  our  fault. 
Let  us  scorn  those  that  jeer  at  us  and  pity  those  that 
do  not  understand  us.  What  we  desire  is  the  noble, 
the  just,  the  beneficent ;  and  if  there  be  any  one  who 
believes  that  these  things  are  forever  denied  to  men, 
then  for  God's  sake  and  for  man's  sake  let  him  hold 
his  tongue,  for  life  would  be  altogether  too  sad  if 
we  all  had  to  think  as  he  does." 

But  as  I  glanced  through  the  article  I  found  words 
of  her  own  at  the  end  which  are  equally  prophetic 
and  beautiful : 

"And  when  we  all  stood  in  the  great  arena  listen- 
ing to  the  explanations  of  the  professor  who  was 
detailed  by  the  government  to  guide  us,  that  the 
gladiatorial  contests  were  counted  'the  indispensable* 
for  the  Eomans,  we  could  not  but  say  to  each  other, 
'And  yet  people  have  learned  to  dispense  with  them 
and  to  abhor  them.'  So  if  to-day  many  still  count 
war  indispensable,  what  does  that  prove?  Or, 
again,  many  of  us  might  make  this  observation:  at 
bottom  it  was  an  innocent  gratification  to  look  on 


106  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

and  see  how  a  few  dozen  wrestlers — criminals  at 
that,  condemned  to  death — stretch  each  other  on  the 
sand  or  are  killed  by  wild  beasts,  compared  to  that 
other  custom  of  drilling  millions  of  innocent  men  for 
the  giant  arena  in  which  they  are  to  be  mangled  and 
dashed  to  pieces,  not  by  lions  and  tigers,  but  by  arti- 
ficial murder  machines." 

"In  one  of  the  little  Pompeian  houses  an  ancient 
inscription  was  still  perceptible  on  the  wall.  Our 
professor  of  archeology  read  it  off:  'A  woe  to  him 
who  cannot  love;  a  double  woe  to  him  who  would 
prohibit  love.' 

"Then  the  thought  thrilled  through  me:  '0  ye 
who  would  hinder  us  from  working  at  the  weaving 
of  the  band  that  is  to  gird  all  nations  together  in 
accord,  ye  who  scoff  at  us  because  we  would  choke 
out  hereditary  hate,  because  we  would  fan  the  flame 
of  the  love  of  humanity — a  double  woe  to  you!'  " 

When  Baroness  von  Siittner  was  in  America  I 
was  with  her  many  times.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
accompanying  her  upon  several  occasions  when  she 
was  speaking  to  various  groups  in  New  York.  My 
last  recollection  of  her  is  at  the  great  luncheon  which 
Mrs.  Elmer  Black  gave  for  her  at  Sherry's  before 
she  sailed  for  home.  Mrs.  Black  had  invited  several 
hundred  of  the  leading  women  of  the  city  to  meet 
her,  and  she  was  greatly  pleased  at  this  tribute  of  ap- 
preciation. I  was  allowed  to  drop  in  while  the  after- 
luncheon  speaking  was  going  on.  Her  words  were 
the  last  I  heard  her  speak.  The  address  was  very 
fully  reported  in  the  papers,  but  the  whole  impres- 
sion could  not  be  conveyed  in  print.  The  Baroness, 


BARONESS  BEETHA  VON  StfTTNEE    107 

advanced  in  years,  spoke  with  the  consciousness  that 
these  would  be  her  last  words  in  this  country.  She 
implored  the  women  present,  first,  to  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  a  new  international  order;  and  sec- 
ondly, to  work  for  it  as  those  who  believed.  There 
were  so  many  people  who  said,  "This  thing  is  good 
and  ought  to  be,  but  it  is  impossible."  If  every- 
body in  the  world  had  felt  that  way  nothing  would 
ever  have  been  accomplished.  The  things  we  are 
enjoying  to-day  were  once  the  impossibles.  They 
became  possible  when  a  sufficient  number  believed. 
All  we  want  will  pass  from  the  realm  of  impossibles 
into  the  world  of  realities  if  only  all  who  believe 
strive  for  them  regardless  of  probability  or  possi- 
bility. She  had  seen  such  changes  in  her  life  that 
nothing  any  longer  seemed  impossible  to  her. 


"J.  B." 

(JONATHAN  BRIERLEY) 

FOB  several  years  there  appeared  a  weekly 
editorial  in  The  Christian  World,  of  London, 
signed  "J.  B."  and  no  one  outside  the  edi- 
torial circle  knew  who  was  the  owner  of  these  myste- 
rious initials.  Curiosity  was  soon  aroused  because 
it  was  seen  that  the  two-column  articles  were  taking 
rank  with  the  finest  things  being  written  in  Great 
Britain.  Indeed  it  was  not  long  before  people  were 
saying  there  were  no  such  editorials  as  these  except 
from  Nicoll,  Button  and  Stead.  They  showed  a 
mind  that  had  thoroughly  reflected  on  all  the  great 
problems  of  the  soul  and  of  society.  They  showed 
a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  best  philosophical 
and  theological  thought  of  all  ages.  Above  all  they 
showed  an  acquaintance  with  all  the  literatures  of 
the  world  that  was  simply  marvellous,  although  it 
probably  had  its  explanation  in  the  reading  done  in 
the  years  of  enforced  idleness  in  Switzerland  while 
recuperating  from  severe  illness.  When  Thomas 
Davidson,  that  wandering  scholar,  died,  a  London 
paper  remarked  that  the  man  who  probably  knew 
more  than  any  other  man  in  the  world,  with  the 
exception  of  three  or  four,  had  passed  away.  Surely 
"J.  B."  must  have  been  among  the  "three  or  four." 
For  those  of  us  who  knew  him  knew  that  no  one  could 
108 


"J.  B.»  109 

mention  any  book  or  any  period  of  history  that  he 
did  not  know  all  about.  (I  shall  refer  in  a  moment 
to  the  wonder  of  this  in  speaking  of  his  books.)  The 
articles  attracted  more  and  more  attention.  Thought- 
ful men  from  all  over  the  world  began  writing  to 
The  Christian  World  asking:  "Who  is  this  remark- 
able 'J.  B.'?"  Then  a  volume  of  these  collected 
essays — for  they  were  essays  rather  than  editorials, 
essays  in  real  distinction  of  style  and  in  conveying 
evidence  of  infinite  pains — appeared  under  the  title 
"Studies  of  the  Soul."  It  immediately  attracted 
wide  attention  and  "  J.  B."  became  known  as  a  man, 
not  merely  as  a  name. 

With  the  disclosure  to  the  public  of  his  personality 
a  most  interesting  life-story  came  to  light.  Jonathan 
Brierley  had  entered  the  ministry  some  years  before 
with  all  the  promise  of  a  brilliant  career.  He  was, 
as  may  well  be  judged  from  his  writings,  an  unusu- 
ally stimulating  preacher.  He  held  important  pas- 
torates in  Devon,  North  London  and  South  London, 
when  suddenly  at  the  age  of  forty-three  he  collapsed 
completely  and  had  to  drop  all  work.  It  was  the 
kind  of  breakdown  which  to  a  soul  less  courageous 
than  Brierley 's  would  have  meant  the  end  of  all 
public  life.  He  knew  that  it  meant  the  end  of 
preaching,  for  it  was  evident  that  neither  his  voice 
nor  his  body  could  stand  the  strain  of  public  speak- 
ing. Most  men  would  have  sought  some  quiet  secre- 
tarial position  or  some  business  opening.  It  was 
evident  that  henceforth  he  must  pursue  a  double 
struggle,  one  to  keep  his  health,  the  other  to  secure  a 
livelihood.  But  although  already  forty-three,  and 


110  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

although  twenty  years  had  been  spent  in  a  calling 
that  must  now  be  closed,  he  determined  to  begin  all 
over  again,  and  to  make  the  place  for  himself  in  the 
world  of  literature  that  had  been  denied  him  in  the 
pulpit. 

Throwing  up  everything  connected  with  his  work 
he  departed  for  Switzerland.  He  took  a  house  at 
Neuchatel,  where  there  was  a  fine  library.  He  took 
many  books  from  England.  He  immediately  settled 
down  to  several  hours  of  reading  daily,  spending 
also  four  or  five  hours  daily  in  walking  amidst  the 
exquisite  mountains.  Slowly  health  came  back, 
although  he  was  never  a  strong  man  again  and 
always  had  to  eschew  preaching  and  public  life; 
rapidly  the  mind  began  to  surge  and  seethe  under  the 
stimulus  of  book  and  mountain.  It  was  not  long 
before  he  tried  an  essay  on  The  Christian  World, 
of  London.  The  editors  recognized  its  superior 
quality  at  once.  Another  and  another  came — signed 
simply  "J.  B."  People  began  to  look  for  them. 
Soon  they  became  a  weekly  feature  of  the  paper,  and 
after  several  months'  sojourn  in  Switzerland  "  J.  B." 
came  back  to  London  to  join  the  staff  of  The  Chris- 
tian World.  From  this  time  on,  almost  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  an  essay  appeared  every  week  without 
intermission.  The  world  is  familiar  with  them  now 
,in  the  seven  or  eight  volumes  that  have  been  pub- 
lished, under  such  titles  as  "The  Growing  of  a 
Soul,"  "Ourselves  and  the  Universe,"  "Our  City 
of  God,"  "Life  and  the  Ideal,"  "Religion  and  Ex- 
perience" and  "Problems  of  Personal  Living." 
These  volumes  have  found  their  way  into  every 


"J.  B.»  111 

nation.  Mr.  Jeffs  has  devoted  one  chapter  of  his 
interesting  book,  "Jonathan  Brierley:  His  Life  and 
Work/'  to  "The  Post  Bag  of  'J.  B.'  "  It  reveals 
the  extent  of  his  correspondence.  He  received  letters 
from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  readers  and  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.  To  these  letters  he  wrote 
long  and  helpful  answers.  They  are  more  personal 
than  the  essays,  although  the  essays  themselves  are 
the  fruit  of  his  experience  as  much  as  they  are  the 
product  of  his  reading  and  thinking.  In  some  of 
these  letters  he  reveals  the  processes  of  his  thinking 
as  well  as  the  results.  They  show  a  soul  that  had 
come  to  the  clear  light  through  much  darkness,  had 
come  to  a  resting  place  through  many  wanderings. 
I  happen  to  be  the  possessor  of  some  of  these  letters. 
In  the  last  letter  which  I  received  from  him  he  struck 
the  key-note  of  his  life.  After  thanking  me  for  my 
expression  of  gratitude  for  the  help  he  had  rendered 
me  and  others,  he  remarks  how  "after  all,  it  is  our 
contribution  to  life  that  gives  life  its  real  value  and 
brings  the  deepest  and  most  lasting  satisfaction." 
When,  during  the  last  year  of  his  life,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  his  dear  friend  of  many  years,  Dr.  James 
M.  Whiton,  I  asked  him  to  write  one  article  a  month 
for  The  Christian  Work,  he  wrote  that  he  had  re- 
ceived many  letters  from  Americans  about  his  books, 
and  that  "it  would  become  a  real  joy  to  speak  regu- 
larly to  a  great  American  audience  on  the  deep  things 
of  the  soul."  These  articles  immediately  attracted 
attention  and  I  had  the  pleasure  of  forwarding  to 
him  many  letters  from  American  readers  which  must 
have  greatly  cheered  him  in  his  last  year. 


112  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

"J.  B."  was  as  interesting  in  conversation  as  in 
his  writings.  It  is  not  always  that  our  best  thinkers 
can  express  themselves  as  freely  and  as  profoundly 
in  their  impromptu  talk  as  in  their  writings.  But, 
although  the  one  essay  a  week  was  carefully  and 
leisurely  written,  sometimes  when  he  found  himself 
the  center  of  a  group  that  comprehended  or  in  the 
presence  of  one  answering  heart,  he  would  un- 
burden himself  in  language  which  had  all  the  rich- 
ness of  thought  and  the  perfection  of  style  that 
characterized  his  written  words. 

A  member  of  the  National  Liberal  Club,  of  which 
"  J.  B."  was  a  member,  has  left  the  following  rather 
interesting  account  of  him  as  a  talker.  What  he 
says  about  the  crowd  gathering  about  him  whenever 
he  appeared  was  generally  true.  Dr.  J.  Morgan 
Gibbon  has  told  us  that  the  same  thing  always  hap- 
pened in  the  Eclectic  Club — a  ministers'  associa- 
tion— whenever  he  appeared : 

' '  He  liked  to  do  the  lion 's  share  of  the  talking.  In 
fact  he  loved  an  audience.  When  in  the  club  circle 
he  was  always  eager  to  talk,  but  reluctant  to  listen. 
About  the  time  of  the  1906  General  Election  he 
joined  the  National  Liberal  Club  and  two  or  three 
days  a  week  went  there  to  lunch.  Gradually  he  be- 
came known  to  an  ever-expanding  circle  of  Free 
Churchmen  who  foregathered  in  the  smoke-room, 
and  'J.  B.  V  presence  in  the  group  was  always  wel- 
comed. He  thoroughly  enjoyed  these  impromptu 
little  fraternal  gatherings.  And  when  he  was  there 
the  group  would  swell  in  size.  The  range  and  scope 
of  'J.  B. V  interest  and  knowledge  often  amazed  his 


"J.  B."  113 

fellow  members  at  the  N.  L.  C.  Even  on  political 
matters  his  table-talk  was  distinguished.  His  mind 
was  soaked  in  history  and  his  spirit  was  democratic — 
with  a  radicalism  which  was  almost  revolutionary  in 
its  revulsion  from  territorial  tyrannies  and  heredi- 
tary privilege.  The  calm  insolence  with  which  the 
peers  after  the  General  Election  of  1906  set  to  work 
and  smashed  all  the  Liberal  Government's  legislative 
endeavours  maddened  'J.  B.'  His  fury  was  quite 
explosive.  But  it  was  when  conversation  dropped 
away  from  politics  into  the  realms  of  travel  and 
literature  or  art  that '  J.  B.V  talk  was  most  fascinat- 
ing. His  optimism  never  flickered.  It  was  always 
in  full  flame.  One  day  a  Free  Church  Minister  and 
novelist  gave  utterance  to  a  pessimistic  plaint  in 
'J.  B.V  presence.  He  was  almost  shocked.  'No, 
no,  you've  no  right  to  be  a  pessimist,'  he  said.  'I'm 
the  only  man  here  with  that  right,  but  I'm  an  op- 
timist through  and  through.  For  the  last  twenty 
years  I've  had  "an  inside"  that  has  played  all  sorts 
of  unconscionable  tricks  upon  me.  I  never  know 
when  I  get  up  in  the  morning  whether  I  shall  not 
before  the  end  of  the  day  have  been  sent  to  bed  for 
a  week  or  a  fortnight.  But  every  morning  when  I 
get  up  as  I  sit  on  the  side  of  the  bed  and  pull  on  my 
breeches,  I  say  to  myself:  "Brierley,  you  old  rascal, 
you  get  infinitely  more  than  your  deserts."  '  After 
that  occasion,  pessimistic  utterances  were  restrained 
in  the  presence  of  'J.  B.'  His  optimism  when  he 
had  so  much  right  to  be  pessimistic  silenced  cheap 
pessimism." 
It  was  at  the  National  Liberal  Club  that  I  first  met 


114  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

"J.  B."  When  I  reached  London  I  found  an  in- 
vitation awaiting  me  to  lunch  with  him  there.  I  had 
read  every  word  he  had  written  for  ten  years  and 
felt  well  acquainted  with  him.  I  was  a  little  taken 
aback  when  I  first  saw  him.  He  was  waiting  for 
me  by  the  door.  I  had  a  little  of  the  feeling  that 
Miss  Masson  had  when  she  first  met  Browning.  ' '  He 
looked  like  a  real  prosperous  business  man."  The 
"Prophet  of  Fleet  Street, "  as  Mr.  Jeffs  calls  him, had 
none  of  the  marks  of  the  prophet  about  him.  But 
when,  after  dinner,  we  got  to  talking  about  the  state 
of  religion  in  England  the  prophetic  fire  soon  flashed 
out  and  I  listened  to  one  of  the  most  wonderful  "dis- 
courses" I  have  ever  heard.  It  really  was  a  dis- 
course, for  I  said  nothing.  I  saw  other  men  casting 
envious  eyes  in  our  direction  and  no  doubt  they 
would  have  come  over  had  I  not  been  a  stranger  and 
his  guest.  One  thing  on  which  he  dwelt  is  very  sig- 
nificant in  the  light  of  what  has  happened  since, 
namely,  that  Christianity  while  it  had  purified  the 
souls  of  many  men  had  not  yet  come  to  have  any 
regulative  power  in  social,  industrial  or  interna- 
tional relations.  He  feared  climaxes  in  the  labour 
world  and  in  international  relationships  over  which 
the  Church  would  have  no  control.  His  words  about 
the  powerlessness  of  the  Church  in  the  face  of  the 
great  chasm  between  capital  and  labour  sound  re- 
markably like  those  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  help- 
less bishop  in  Mr.  Wells'  novel  "The  Soul  of  a 
Bishop,"  and  his  words  about  the  helplessness  of 
the  Church  before  international  wars  sound  much 
like  Mr.  Galsworthy's  recent  indictments.  But  un- 


"J.  B.»  115 

like  Mr.  Wells  and  Mr.  Galsworthy  he  believed  the 
Church's  great  conquests  of  the  future  were  to  be 
in  these  realms.  Smugness  was  the  great  danger  of 
the  Church.  "What  might  happen  if  the  Church 
should  make  some  great  venture."  Twice  in  suc- 
ceeding summers  I  called  on  "J.  B."  in  Fleet  Street 
and  had  interesting  hours.  No  one  would  ever  have 
dreamed  that  he  was  talking  with  a  man  whose  whole 
life  was  a  fight  against  insidious  disease.  Week  after 
week  came  the  prophetic,  hopeful  word.  Thousands 
waited  for  it.  Few  essays  have  been  written  during 
the  last  fifty  years  richer  in  suggestion  to  the 
thoughtful  mind. 


XI 
ROBERT  COLLYER 

I  PRESUME  that  many  of  my  readers  have 
often  had  the  same  experience  with  an  auto- 
biography that  I  have  had;  when  one  has 
entered  upon  its  pages  one  cannot  stop  until  one  has 
read  to  the  end.  I  have  several  times  found  myself 
reading  until  two  in  the  morning,  unconscious  of 
time,  when  I  have  been  following  some  prophetic 
man  through  his  fascinating  life-story.  Only  re- 
cently I  have  had  this  experience  with  two  of  these 
stories :  one  the  reminiscences  of  Edward  Clodd,  the 
great  scientist;  the  other  Bishop  Boyd  Carpenter's 
story,  with  its  interesting  glimpses  of  the  great  men 
of  England  of  his  generation.  How  well  I  remem- 
ber the  night  I  began  "Some  Memories,"  by  Robert 
Collyer.  I  had  recently  moved  from  Lenox  to  New 
York,  and  although  I  had  of  course  heard  of  Robert 
Collyer  all  my  life,  and  had  read  many  of  his  ser- 
mons— and  what  beautiful,  sunlit  sermons  they 
are — and  although  he  was  living  in  New  York  as 
Pastor  Emeritus  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  I  had 
not  seen  him  nor  met  him.  One  Monday  evening — 
perhaps  in  1905 — "Some  Memories"  came  in  from 
the  bookstore,  and  I  sat  down  by  the  lamp  to  glance 
116 


EOBEET  COLLYEB  117 

through  the  book.  The  spell  of  its  first  pages  soon 
came  upon  me  and  I  stopped  not  until  I  had  reached 
the  end.  What  a  story  of  beautiful  steady  growth  it 
is,  full  of  sunlight  and  the  indwelling  presence  of  the 
Eternal  Goodness,  but  tinged  with  sweet  sorrow  and 
hard  work,  and  now  and  then  with  the  touch  of 
poverty.  How  it  presents  again  the  old  problem: 
What  is  it  that  touches  the  heart  of  some  boy  in 
some  factory  or  shop  or  farm,  and  suddenly  kindles 
an  almost  fierce  ambition,  sows  a  divine  discontent 
in  his  bosom,  and  impels  him  to  go  forth  into  the 
great  world?  Here  was  the  boy  in  this  Yorkshire 
town  toddling  off  to  the  great  factory  at  six  in  the 
morning  to  work  till  eight  in  the  evening — with  one 
hour  at  noon — thirteen  hours  a  day.  An  overseer 
stood  over  these  little  boys  with  a  strap  which  he 
laid  upon  their  small  shoulders  vigorously  when 
they  showed  any  sign  of  fainting.  It  was  in  the 
days  when  the  younger  Pitt,  desiring  more  money  to 
wage  war,  had  said,  "We  must  yoke  up  the  children 
to  work  in  the  factories."  The  boy  fortunately 
found  release  for  two  years  when  the  new  factory 
act  was  passed  in  England  barring  all  children  un- 
der nine  from  the  factories.  The  story  tells  of  his 
being  bound  out  as  an  apprentice  to  a  smith  at  Ilkley, 
six  miles  from  home,  to  serve  from  the  age  of  four- 
teen to  twenty-one.  It  was  here  that  he  met  a  work- 
ing man,  John  Dobson,  who  was  fond  of  books  and 
out  of  his  scant  wages  bought  books  on  metaphysics, 
over  which  he  pored  all  night.  He  introduced  the 
boy  Collyer  to  them,  and  an  overpowering  hunger 
for  knowledge  seized  him.  He  tells  us  how  he  read 


118  THE  ONE  GBEAT  SOCIETY 

day  and  night — read  while  he  was  eating,  while  he 
was  walking,  even  while  he  was  courting. 

It  was  while  he  was  serving  his  apprenticeship  as 
a  blacksmith  that  the  sudden  desire  to  preach  came 
over  him.  The  story  of  one  of  the  first  sermons  is 
so  charming  that  I  transcribe  it  here : 

"It  was  in  June.  I  see  the  place  still,  and  am 
aware  of  the  fragrance  of  the  wild  uplands  stealing 
through  the  open  lattice  on  bars  of  sunshine,  to 
mingle  with  the  pungent  snap  of  the  peat  fire  on  the 
hearth  which  gives  forth  the  essence  of  the  moor- 
lands for  a  thousand  years.  And  I  still  mind  how 
heavy  my  heart  was  that  afternoon.  I  had  been 
trying  all  the  week  to  find  a  sermon  in  a  parable; 
but  there  was  no  pulse  to  answer,  no  vision,  and 
Bishop  Home  says,  '  If  you  distill  dry  bones,  all  you 
will  have  for  your  pains  is  water.' 

"Still  there  I  was,  the  preacher,  and  they  were 
simple-hearted  folk  up  there,  of  the  old  Methodist 
election  unto  grace,  eager  and  hungry  for  the  word 
of  life,  and  ready  to  come  in  with  the  grand  Amens. 

"The  big  farm  kitchen  was  full,  and  they  were 
just  the  hearers  to  help  a  poor  soul  over  the  sand 
bars  on  the  life  of  their  full  hearts.  So  they  sang 
with  a  will ;  and  where  in  all  the  world  will  you  hear 
such  singing  with  a  will  as  in  Yorkshire  and  Lan- 
cashire! Then  I  must  pray.  Father  Taylor  said, 
'I  cannot  make  a  prayer,'  nor  can  I.  But,  with 
those  hearts  filled  from  the  springs  of  life,  I  felt  that 
day  the  prayer  was  making  me.  Then  the  time 
came  for  the  sermon.  Some  stammering  words  came 
to  my  lips,  and  then  some  more,  while  gleams  of 


EOBEET  COLLYEE  119 

light  began  to  play  about  my  parable.  And  their 
eyes  began  to  shine,  while  now  and  then  the  grand 
Amens  came  in  as  a  chorus  from  the  chests  of  men 
who  had  talked  to  each  other  in  the  teeth  of  the 
winds  up  there  from  the  times  of  the  Saxons  and 
the  Danes.  And  now,  after  all  these  years,  I  feel 
sure  it  was  given  me  that  day  what  I  should  say. 

"So  the  service  ended,  and  the  good  man  of  the 
house  came,  laid  his  hands  on  me,  and  said  very 
tenderly :  'My  lad,  the  Lord  has  called  thee  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  The  Lord  bless  thee  and  make  thee 
faithful  in  the  truth.'  And  all  the  people  said 
Amen,  while  I  have  always  said  that  this  was  my 
true  ordination." 

Then  follows  the  story  of  the  immigration  of  the 
young  blacksmith  and  his  wife  to  America.  He  was 
then  twenty-six  and  had  done  a  good  deal  of  preach- 
ing in  England,  his  only  preparation  having  been 
the  books  he  had  read,  the  sense  of  God  in  his  heart, 
and  a  continual  brooding  over  the  deep  things  of  the 
soul.  Arriving  in  America  he  worked  at  his  trade 
as  a  blacksmith  until  again  the  call  came  to  preach. 
The  "Memories"  tell  the  whole  story  of  those  years 
of  struggle  and  poverty,  the  assumption  of  preach- 
ing in  the  Methodist  Church,  the  passage  into  the 
Unitarian  Church,  the  wonderful  Chicago  ministry, 
the  participation  in  the  Civil  War,  the  great  fire,  the 
rebuilding  of  the  city  and  his  share  in  the  work  of 
reconstruction. 

My  first  sight  of  Dr.  Collyer  was  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Liberal  Ministers'  Club,  of  New  York  City.  This 
club  consists  of  about  forty  ministers,  whose  com- 


120  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

mon  consent  to  allow  every  man  to  think  freely  and 
outspokenly  on  matters  of  faith  had  drawn  them 
together  into  a  common  fellowship.  They  meet  once 
a  month,  on  the  first  Monday,  to  lunch  together.  At 
this  luncheon  some  one  reads  a  half  hour  paper, 
which  is  followed  by  an  hour's  free  discussion.  The 
best  discussion  I  have  ever  heard  has  been  at  the 
luncheons  of  this  group.  I  was  elected  to  member- 
ship in  the  club  soon  after  my  coming  to  New  York. 
Dr.  Collyer  was  almost  always  present.  I  remember 
my  impression  so  well,  as  I  saw  him  for  the  first 
time — the  massive,  yet  tender  face,  clean-shaven,  and 
crowned  by  hair  as  white  as  snow,  which  fell  about 
his  shoulders  in  silver  ringlets.  He  had  a  really 
beautiful  face — and  one  as  expressive  of  thought 
and  feeling  as  was  that  of  Edwin  Booth.  When  I 
was  introduced  to  him  and  told  him  that  I  had  just 
come  to  New  York  to  take  the  Pilgrim  Church  he 
immediately  became  greatly  interested  and  began 
telling  me  about  his  coming  to  New  York  twenty-five 
years  before.  He  said  that  he  had  come  to  a  city 
of  homes  and  Christians;  that  I  had  come  to  a  city 
of  apartments,  one-half  Christian  and  one-half 
Jewish.  And  yet  he  did  not  feel  that  mine  was 
altogether  the  harder  lot.  It  called  for  more  faith, 
more  hard  work,  and  more  solving  of  great  problems. 
But  he  was  not  sure  that  that  was  unfortunate  for 
a  young  man.  It  was  through  the  struggle  with 
somewhat  baffling  circumstance  that  strong  men  were 
made.  He  also  said  that  he  thought  the  problems 
of  the  modern  city  church  were  engendering  a  more 
forcible  and  direct  style  of  preaching  that  was  a  gain 


EOBEET  COLLYEE  121 

upon  the  preaching  of  the  older  days.  He  then  be- 
gan telling  me  about  his  early  days  in  New  York  and 
what  delightful  Sundays  he  experienced  in  the 
Church  of  the  Messiah.  He  had  always  loved  preach- 
ing, and  Sunday  morning  was  for  him  the  joy-day 
of  the  week.  For  quite  a  while  he  talked  and  then 
the  company  went  up-stairs  for  luncheon.  He  always 
sat  at  the  head  of  the  table  next  to  the  president  of 
the  club,  and  his  benign  face  was  certainly  a  real 
benediction  upon  the  occasion.  It  was  at  these 
luncheons  that  he  opened  his  heart  more  freely  than 
elsewhere.  He  was  eighty-two  years  old  when  I  first 
began  attending  them,  but,  although,  as  is  sure  to 
be  the  case  in  a  composite  group  of  men,  the  pessi- 
mistic note  was  often  struck,  he  was  always  on  the 
side  of  the  prophets.  He  had  seen  the  world  go  to 
the  devil  so  many  times  that  he  was  losing  faith  in 
its  capacity  for  permanent  or  even  spasmodic  de- 
generation. 

He  did  not  deny  that  the  forces  of  evil  in  the  world 
were  great,  but  he  knew  that  the  forces  of  good  were 
greater.  If  this  were  not  so,  if  God  and  good  were 
not  ultimately  to  triumph  then  we  were  not  living  in 
a  world,  but  in  a  chaos,  a  delusion,  and  everybody 
might  as  well  adjust  himself  to  it,  and  all  together 
have  it  all  over.  Either  God  was  a  victorious  God 
or  no  God  at  all.  (The  idea  of  the  finite,  struggling, 
achieving  God,  dependent  upon  men  for  His  success, 
as  lately  promulgated  by  Mr.  Wells,  had  not  come 
into  the  consciousness  of  men  at  this  time,  although 
one  might  say  that  such  an  idea  lies  enshrined  in 
Bergson's  writings.)  On  this  point,  that  the  uni- 


122  THE  ONE  GBEAT  SOCIETY 

verse  had  no  meaning  unless  it  issued  in  good,  Dr. 
Collyer  based  his  optimism — on  this  and  a  beautiful 
consciousness  of  the  near  Father,  the  Eternal  Good- 
ness enshrining  him.  Indeed  this  was  one  of  the 
most  striking  things  about  him,  his  sense  of  the 
divine  presence.  .  It  hovered  about  him  as  it  did 
about  his  friend  Edward  Everett  Hale.  God  was  as 
real  as  any  human  companion  and  perhaps  more  real 
as  old  age  came  upon  him.  The  beautiful  light  of 
these  closing  days  was  this  presence  of  God.  He  did 
not  speak  at  these  noonday  luncheons  unless  called 
upon,  but  when  he  did  it  was  the  event  of  the  day. 

I  remember  above  all  others  one  day  when  he  told 
us  the  story  of  his  first  days  in  America.  He  was 
married  in  1850,  and  together  he  and  his  wife  set  out 
for  America.  He  began  work  in  a  forge  seven  miles 
out  from  Philadelphia.  For  nine  years  he  worked 
at  making  claw  hammers.  The  work  was  interrupted 
at  times,  and  during  the  weeks  when  the  forge  was 
idle  he  made  hay,  worked  on  public  roads  and  even 
carried  a  hod  for  a  while.  The  great  panic  came  and 
the  forge  closed.  They  faced  extreme  poverty  in  the 
home,  but  somehow  they  pulled  through  until  the 
anvils  rang  again.  At  the  end  of  nine  years  he  laid 
down  his  hammer  for  good  and  all,  and  .for  the  rest 
of  his  long  life  preached  the  Gospel  that  was  forever 
clamouring  for  expression.  Meantime,  during  his 
work  at  the  forge,  he  had  begun  to  preach.  He  told 
us  all  about  those  first  sermons  in  America.  He  had 
joined  the  Methodist  Church  at  Milestown,  where 
they  had  given  him  a  warm  welcome.  He  had 
brought  a  good  letter  from  the  brethren  in  England, 


EGBERT  COLLYEE  123 

and  when  the  minister  in  charge  of  the  circuit  read 
it  he  admitted  him  to  the  band  of  local  preachers. 
On  one  hot  day  in  August  he  called  upon  him  to  take 
the  service  in  a  small  schoolhouse,  and  then  came 
Dr.  Collyer's  first  sermon  in  America.  He  told  the 
incident  to  us  in  almost  the  same  beautiful  language 
he  has  used  in  his  "Memories"  and  I  quote  the 
words  he  uses  there : 

"And  at  my  work  I  had  mused  over  those  words 
of  the  prophet  until  my  heart  burned — '  Get  thee  up 
in  thy  chariot,  for  there  is  a  sound  of  abundance  of 
rain.'  I  forgot  all  about  dialect,  so  did  the  small 
band  about  us.  The  farmer's  kitchen  on  the  moor- 
side  and  the  small  schoolhouse  on  the  hill  opened 
each  into  the  other.  My  brothers  in  the  ministry 
will  know  what  I  mean.  It  was  given  me  that 
day  what  I  should  say.  In  my  poor  measure  and 
degree  it  was  as  when  in  the  old  time  they  spake  to 
every  man  in  his  own  tongue.  I  was  in  the  spirit 
on  that  Lord's  Day.  How  I  should  love  to  feel  that 
burning  once  more  before  I  die!  We  speak  of 
some  event  or  experience  as  worth  a  year  of  our  life. 
I  think  the  worth  of  that  afternoon  has  gone  into 
all  the  years  since  then.  After  the  benediction 
Brother  Taft  gave  me  a  fine  grip  of  the  hand  and 
said,  '  Brother,  you  shall  have  all  the  work  you  want 
to  do. '  And  the  promise  was  kept.  After  some  time 
a  church  was  built  on  the  hill,  and  then  there  were 
four  in  the  circuit.  I  took  my  turn  and  turn  about 
in  them  all  through  the  nine  years.  Slowly  but 
surely  I  caught  the  new  tongue  in  some  measure; 
for  I  have  a  pliant  and  sensitive  ear  and  was  much 


124  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

pleased  when,  after  I  had  mastered  the  speech,  an 
old  man  said  to  me : '  I  did  not  understand  you  for  a 
long  time  when  you  came  to  preach  for  us,  but  I 
felt  good.  So  I  always  came  to  hear  you.'  Still  I 
am  not  sure  that  I  am  already  perfect  in  this  tongue ; 
for  within  a  month,  on  a  Sunday  morning  after  the 
sermon,  a  lady  came  forward  and  said,  with  tears 
in  her  voice,  'I  am  from  Yorkshire,  sir,  and  was  so 
glad  to  hear  the  dear  old  burr  here  and  there  in 
your  discourse.'  " 

The  first  time  I  ever  heard  him  speak  in  public 
was  at  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  Church.  It  was  on 
the  evening  when  they  were  celebrating  the  tenth 
anniversary  of  Dr.  Jefferson's  pastorate.  Various 
men  had  spoken,  including  Dr.  MacArthur  and  Dr. 
Thompson,  of  the  Tabernacle,  when  they  called 
upon  Dr.  Collyer.  The  old  man  was  evidently 
greatly  surprised  upon  being  asked  into  the  pulpit. 
He  spoke  very  tenderly  and  especially  called  atten- 
tion to  the  change  that  had  come  over  religious 
practices  since  his  active  ministry.  He  said  that  he 
and  Dr.  Taylor,  the  famous  pastor  of  the  Tabernacle, 
had  lived  and  laboured  together  for  years  in  New 
York,  had  been  on  committees  together,  had  been 
intimate,  personal  friends,  yet  never  once  had  Dr. 
Taylor  asked  him  into  his  pulpit.  He  even  doubted 
if  Dr.  Taylor  would  have  allowed  him  to  enter  into 
his  pulpit  under  any  conditions.  But  here  he  was, 
a  Unitarian,  in  the  pulpit  of  a  Congregational 
Church — and  hoping  that  he  would  not  harm  it. 
He  said,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  that  he  had  a  con- 
fession to  make  anyhow.  He  lived  in  the  neigh- 


EGBERT  COLLYEE  125 

bourhood  of  the  church  and  as  old  age  made  it  more 
and  more  difficult  to  go  far  from  his  house,  he  very 
frequently  slipped  into  the  Tabernacle  and  enjoyed 
its  minister  hugely.  He  said  he  thought  that  the 
tendency  of  orthodox  ministers  as  they  grew  old 
was  to  become  more  and  more  conservative,  while  the 
tendency  of  Unitarian  ministers  as  old  age  came 
upon  them  was  to  become  more  and  more  liberal. 
But  he  was  an  exception  to  the  rule.  He  had  grown 
more  orthodox.  Though  he  was  afraid  it  was  not 
in  the  direction  some  present  would  call  orthodoxy. 
For  his  orthodoxy  was  that  which  Jesus  Christ  taught 
as  true  and  sufficient  for  salvation.  (What  would 
he  have  said  in  these  days  when  so  many  are  claim- 
ing that  Christ's  words  are  impractical  and  never 
intended  as  a  rule  of  life.)  He  said  he  was  growing 
so  orthodox  that  he  was  even  believing  in  love  as  the 
law  of  life,  love  of  one's  enemies,  the  possibility  of 
getting  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  earth,  the  truth 
that  Jesus  was  right  in  His  revelation  of  God  as  a 
Father  rather  than  a  Roman  monarch  or  an  eastern 
satrap.  To  this  orthodoxy  he  was  moving  fast,  and 
he  could  not  help  it  if  his  orthodox  friends  disowned 
him  on  that  basis.  In  any  event  he  was  with  Jesus 
in  his  great  fundamental  stand.  I  recall  once  hear- 
ing him  say  in  conversation  that  he  believed  in  the 
divinity  of  Christ  as  absolutely  as  his  orthodox 
brethren,  but  he  believed  that  Christ  was  divine  by 
nature,  whereas  they  believed  His  divinity  was  a 
special  endowment. 

On  one  other  memorable  occasion  I  heard  him 
speak.    It  was  at  the  memorial  services  held  in  New 


126  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

York  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
for  many  years  one  of  his  dearest  and  closest  friends. 
He  was  a  very  old  man  at  the  time  and  seldom  ap- 
peared in  public,  but  he  gladly  came  to  say  a  few 
words  at  the  service.  He  spoke  very  tenderly  and 
beautifully,  his  remarks  being  mostly  memories  of  her 
which  he  cherished  among  his  treasures.  He  closed 
his  words  with  the  story  of  the  last  time  he  had  seen 
her — not  long  before — on  one  of  the  last  occasions 
when  she  had  appeared  in  public.  They  had  both  par- 
ticipated in  a  service — an  anniversary  service,  if  I  re- 
member rightly — at  the  Church  of  the  Disciples,  in 
Boston,  where  the  dear  friends  of  both,  James  Free- 
man Clark  and  Charles  Ames,  had  ministered. 
"They  brought  her  in  in  a  chair,"  he.  said,  "and  she 
was  clothed  all  in  white.  She  looked  like  an  angel,  and 
the  only  regret  I  have  now  is  that  I  did  not  kiss  her. ' ' 
There  was  not  a  dry  eye  in  the  house  as  the  old  man 
nttered  those  words. 

Upon  Dr.  Collyer's  death  the  little  club  of  min- 
isters to  which  I  have  referred  devoted  one  of  its 
Monday  meetings  to  memories  of  the  good,  great  man. 
Many  of  the  men  had  known  him  very  intimately, 
and  it  was  an  occasion  long  to  be  remembered.  I 
do  not  think  I  will  be  violating  a  confidence  if  I  tell 
one  incident  which  was  related  by  the  present  pastor 
of  the  church  he  served  so  notably  in  New  York, 
John  H.  Holmes.  A  young  woman  in  the  parish 
suffered  the  loss  of  one  who  was  very  dear  to  her. 
The  blow  completely  stunned  her  and  no  one  seemed 
able  to  comfort  her.  She  sat  dumb  and  stonelike  by 
the  bier  of  her  loved  one,  unable  even  to  weep. 


EOBEET  COLLYEE  127 

Finally,  Mr.  Holmes  took  Dr.  Collyer  with  him  to 
see  her.  He  went  into  the  room,  and  seeing  her 
sitting  there  in  her  agony,  spoke  no  formal  words  of 
comfort,  but  simply  walked  over  to  her,  put  his 
arm  about  her  shoulders,  and  in  that  deep  rich  voice, 
full  of  sympathy  in  itself,  said,  "My  poor,  little 
lassie."  The  tears  came  in  a  flood  and  she  was 
saved. 


xn 

SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEROWS 

ONE  of  the  delightful  things  about  the  Con- 
ferences on  International  Arbitration,  held 
at  Lake  Mohonk  every  spring  for  many 
years,  was  the  meeting  with  the  leaders  of  thought 
and  activity  from  every  part  of  the  country  and 
every  department  of  life.  Always  there  were  present 
a  hundred  men  out  of  the  four  hundred,  who  had  na- 
tional and  even  international  reputations,  who  had 
written  books  and  who  were  identified  with  the  great 
movements  of  the  day.  At  these  conferences  six  or 
eight  people  were  placed  at  the  same  table  in  the 
dining-room  and  one  of  the  interesting  anticipations 
was  always  that  of  being  placed  next  to  some  inter- 
esting man.  It  was  at  one  of  the  tables  at  Lake 
Mohonk  that  I  first  met  Samuel  June  Barrows  and 
his  equally  interesting  wife.  I  had  known  of  his  work 
and  I  had  also  heard  the  story  of  his  romantic  life. 
For  few  lives  of  the  last  three  generations  have 
had  more  romance  in  them  than  had  his.  As  a  boy 
of  eight  he  had  gone  to  work  in  the  office  of  Colonel 
Hoe,  of  printing  press  fame.  Colonel  Hoe  installed 
one  of  the  first  telegraph  instruments,  and  at  ten 
"Little  Sammy,"  as  he  was  called  by  everybody, 
was  put  in  charge  of  it.  While  in  the  Hoe  establish- 
ment he  developed  remarkable  religious  tendencies, 

128 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEEOWS  129 

and  as  a  mere  boy  he  distributed  tracts  and  preached 
to  the  men  in  the  establishment  and  to  the  sailors  on 
the  docks.  In  time  he  joined  the  Baptist  Church,  the 
Church  of  his  mother,  and  became  one  of  its  most  de- 
voted workers.  While  still  a  small  boy  he  learned 
stenography  and  became  stenographer  in  the  office 
of  Fowler  and  Wells,  famous  as  phrenologists  in 
those  days.  His  health  broke  down  and  he  went  to 
the  water-cure  at  Dansville  and  took  the  treatment 
under  Dr.  Jackson.  He  recovered  his  health,  but 
discovered  something  that  changed  the  whole  course 
of  his  life,  a  union  Church,  people  of  all  denomina- 
tions worshipping  together.  It  set  him  to  thinking, 
with  results  which  appeared  in  most  striking  form  a 
few  years  later.  He  went  back  to  his  work,  but  he 
visited  Dansville  again  and  there  met  Isabel  Chapin, 
to  whom  he  was  betrothed  before  he  left.  Hence- 
forth through  all  his  life  they  did  everything  to- 
gether, manifesting  a  wonderful  sympathy  with  each 
other  in  everything,  her  genius  matching  his  at  every 
point.  He  then  became  a  reporter  on  The  Tribune 
and  The  World,  and  his  work  attracted  much  atten- 
tion. In  1867  he  became  private  secretary  to  William 
H.  Seward,  a  position  of  great  educational  value  in 
the  young  man's  life.  It  was  while  secretary  to  Mr. 
Seward  that,  in  his  office  in  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary, he  came  upon  the  works  of  Theodore  Parker, 
William  Ellery  Channing  and  Cyrus  A.  Bartol. 
They  fired  his  soul  and  determined  the  trend  of  his 
religious  thought.  Their  emphasis  upon  the  spiritual 
life  and  the  ethical  qualities  of  the  Gospel,  rather 
than  upon  creed  and  dogma,  fired  a  soul  which  had 


130  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

already  had  its  eyes  opened  at  the  union  services  at 
Dansville.  Meantime  his  wife  had  gone  to  Vienna 
for  a  year's  study  of  medicine  in  the  famous  uni- 
versity. (She  and  Mary  Safford  were  the  first 
women  to  attend  lectures  at  the  University  of 
Vienna.)  At  this  time  he  left  the  Baptist  Com- 
munion and  entered  the  Unitarian  Church.  When 
his  wife  returned  from  Vienna  he  entered  the  Cam- 
bridge Divinity  School,  where  he  spent  three  years, 
supported  by  the  unceasing  activity  of  his  own  and 
his  wife's  pen.  The  two  summer  vacations  he  spent 
as  correspondent  for  the  New  York  Tribune  with 
General  Custer  on  distant  expeditions  in  the  Black 
Hills.  After  leaving  Cambridge  he  spent  a  year  in 
Europe  with  his  wife,  studying  in  the  German  uni- 
versities and  observing  European  life  and  institu- 
tions. Returning  home,  he  received  several  calls  and 
accepted  that  from  the  historic  First  Church  of 
Dorchester.  Here  he  laboured  for  four  years, 
greatly  beloved  of  all,  when  he  was  called  to  be 
editor  of  The  Christian  Register,  the  organ  of  the 
Unitarian  Church.  For  sixteen  years  he  and  his 
wife  sat  side  by  side  at  their  editorial  desk.  Often 
he  would  leave  his  wife  at  the  desk  and  start  for  some 
distant  part  of  the  country — to  attend  some  congress, 
to  visit  Tuskegee  or  to  investigate  prison  conditions. 
All  these  visits  were  written  up  for  his  paper  and 
he  rendered  inestimable  help  to  the  nation  by  these 
investigations. 

In  1892  they  spent  a  year  in  Europe,  much  of  the 
time  in  Greece.  He  was  an  ardent  student  of  the 
Greek  language  and  literature,  and  this  year  waa 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEEOWS  131 

one  of  great  joy.  He  attended  the  First  Hague 
Conference  and  then  went  to  The  Sorbonne  at  Paris 
to  attend  courses  and  lectures  on  subjects  in  which 
he  was  deeply  interested.  While  there  a  cablegram 
reached  him  from  the  Republican  Committee  of  the 
Tenth  District  of  Boston  asking  him  if  he  would 
accept  the  nomination  for  United  States  Congress. 
During  his  term  in  office  he  rendered  very  valuable 
service  along  the  lines  of  better  treatment  of  the 
Indians  and  prison  reform.  He  became  intimate 
with  President  McKinley  and  supported  the  Presi- 
dent in  his  desire  to  avert  the  war  with  Spain. 

Mr.  Barrows  had  meantime  become  increasingly 
interested  in  prison  reform.  In  1895  President 
Cleveland  appointed  him  to  represent  the  United 
States  on  the  International  Prison  Commission,  and 
in  1899  he  became  secretary  of  the  Prison  Associa- 
tion of  New  York,  which  office  he  held  for  ten  years. 
He  visited  all  the  prisons  of  Europe  and  the  United 
States  and  urged  reform  of  prison  conditions  un- 
ceasingly by  voice  and  pen. 

Always  greatly  interested  in  the  cause  of  inter- 
national peace,  he  was  the  first  to  be  appointed  from 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  represent  this 
country  in  the  Interparliamentary  Union,  whose 
meetings  he  attended  in  Paris,  Brussels  and  Christi- 
ania.  Meantime  he  had  for  years  been  writing 
weekly  articles  in  the  various  periodicals  of  the  na- 
tion, making  innumerable  public  speeches,  writing 
music  and  poetry  of  high  Border,  playing  the  flute, 
singing  in  the  New  York  Oratorio  Society  as  his  most 
beloved  avocation,  and  befriending  numerous  boys 


132  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

who  had  come  under  his  care  upon  their  first  arrest 
and  while  they  were  serving  on  probation,  under  the 
probation  system  he  had  urged  so  long. 

It  was  beside  this  remarkable  man  that  I  found 
myself  seated  at  Lake  Mohonk.  I  knew  all  these 
things,  but  I  had  never  met  the  man.  The  first 
thing  I  felt  was  his  personal  charm.  Everybody 
loved  him  at  first  meeting.  One  could  not  help  it, 
he  was  so  affable  and  so  winning  in  his  ways.  He 
was  the  life  of  our  table.  He  was  a  most  interesting 
talker  and  as  his  soul  was  seething  with  enthusiasm 
>for  humanity  he  talked  incessantly.  How  distinctly 
that  first  hour  comes  back  through  the  mist  of  years. 
Our  table  was  in  the  west  end  of  the  dining-room,  by 
the  great  plate  glass  windows,  where  one  gets  that 
wonderful  view  of  the  Catskill  Mountains.  There  was 
a  splendid  sunset  and  he  began  telling  us  of  other 
evenings  in  Switzerland,  Germany  and  Greece — the 
sunset  glories  he  had  seen.  His  heart  expanded  to 
the  beauty  of  the  world  as  an  unspoiled  child's  heart 
responds  to  the  light  of  day.  Then  the  conversation 
passed  to  the  question  that  had  brought  us  together  at 
Lake  Mohonk,  that  of  substituting  judicial  processes 
for  war  in  the  settlement  of  international  disputes. 
Some  one  doubted  whether  all  this  talk  of  the 
humanizing  of  warfare,  discussed  at  such  length  at 
the  Hague  Conference,  was  calculated  to  do  good. 
"Was  it  not  better  to  make  war  as  horrible  as  pos- 
sible, to  let  all  the  basest  human  instincts  have  full 
play,  that  men  might  sicken  of  it  all  the  sooner, 
and,  shocked  by  terrible  reversion  to  barbarism, 
banish  it?" 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEBOWS  133 

This  remark  called  forth  most  passionate  protest 
from  him:  No,  barbarism  never  cured  barbarism. 
Every  step  forward  in  humane  practices  was  a  step 
towards  the  abolishment  of  war.  As  men  got  rid  of 
one  atrocity  after  another  in  warfare,  they  would  by 
and  by  see  the  atrocity  of  war  itself.  Indeed  he 
thought  that  the  barbarism  of  war  was  apparent 
enough  to  all  except  certain  peoples  in  whom  the 
primitive  instincts  of  might  and  conquest  still  lin- 
gered, seeming  to  them  virtues.  The  trouble  was  that 
men  as  yet  saw  no  other  way  than  war  whereby  to  de- 
fend the  most  sacred  instincts  of  human  rights.  We, 
there  at  Mohonk,  saw  the  new  and  better  way.  A 
handful  of  people  in  France  and  England  saw  it,  but 
the  world  at  large  did  not.  The  way  to  rid  the  world 
of  war  was  not  by  disgust  of  war  but  by  convincing 
the  world  that  Christianity  was  as  workable  among 
nations  as  it  had  proved  itself  to  be  among  men  and 
among  the  states  composing  our  own  nation.  Say 
what  one  would  of  the  accomplishments  of  the  Hague 
Conference,  it  was  one  of  the  great  events  in  history, 
because  it  proved  that  at  last  some  nations  were  be- 
ginning to  feel  that  there  might  be  a  better  way. 
Furthermore,  the  horrors  of  war  somehow  did  not 
work  as  a  deterrent  of  war.  He  felt  that  the  case 
was  similar  to  that  of  the  theory  on  which  prisons 
were  based,  that  if  you  made  the  punishment  of 
crime  terrible  it  prevented  crime.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  it  never  had  and  never  would.  Only  one  thing 
would  stop  crime,  the  education  of  children  in  mind, 
soul  and  hand,  combined  with  an  elevated,  clean  en- 
vironment in  the  place  where  they  grew  up.  The 


134  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

question  of  stopping  war  was  one  of  psychology. 
People  think  war  immediately  when  disputes  arise  or 
rights  are  violated  because  there  is  nothing  else  to 
think'.  Let  us  get  our  court  at  the  Hague  and  then 
let  England,  France  and  America  agree  to  settle 
their  disputes  before  it,  or  by  arbitration,  and  after 
a  few  cases  have  thus  been  peacefully  adjudicated, 
when  some  sudden  clash  of  opposing  interests  arises 
between  nations  they  will  instinctively  think  in  terms 
of  law  instead  of  war.  This  has  been  the  method 
of  evolution  among  individuals.  It  will  be  the 
method  among  states. 

I  had  many  interesting  talks  with  Mr.  Barrows  at 
Lake  Mohonk,  as  we  met  there  year  after  year.  We 
were  both  regular  attendants  at  both  the  spring  and 
fall  conferences.  Always  the  friends  of  the  op- 
pressed everywhere,  he  and  Mrs.  Barrows  were 
greatly  interested  in  the  friends  of  freedom  in 
Russia.  They  were  intimate  friends  of  Tchaikowsky 
and  Madam  Breshkovsky,  both  of  whom  had  spent 
much  of  their  lives  in  jails  and  prison  camps  in 
Siberia.  Mr.  Barrows  talked  much  of  Russia  and 
especially  of  the  Russia  of  the  future,  in  which 
he  had  great  faith.  Shortly  before  his  death 
news  came  that  these  two  Russian  friends,  both 
in  old  age,  had  again  been  thrown  into  prison.  His 
heart  burned  with  indignation  as  he  spoke  of  it. 
He  rushed  to  Washington,  and,  with  other  friends 
of  Russian  freedom,  had  an  interview  with  the  Rus- 
sian ambassador.  Finally  the  ambassador  became 
interested  in  Mr.  Barrows'  earnest  pleading  and  soon 
arranged  with  his  government  to  release  Tchaikowsky 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEEOWS  135 

on  bail  of  fifty  thousand  roubles.  Part  of  this  money 
Mr.  Barrows  raised  in  America,  the  rest  came  from 
England.  But  Madam  Breshkovsky,  "Babushka" 
(the  little  grandmother),  as  they  always  called  her, 
languished  in  the  great  fortress-prison,  sick  and 
seemingly  dying.  Nothing  would  do  but  that  Mrs. 
Barrows  must  go  to  her.  While  she  was  in  St. 
Petersburg  on  this  errand  of  mercy,  Mr.  Barrows 
passed  away  in  New  York,  just  as  he  was  preparing 
to  sail  and  join  her.  The  letter  from  Madam 
Breshkovsky  which  came  to  Mrs.  Barrows  after  his 
death  is  so  beautiful  a  picture  of  his  real  character 
that  I  would  like  to  reprint  it  here.  (It  occurs  on 
page  241  of  the  most  charming  biography  of  Mr. 
Barrows  by  his  wife,  "A  Sunny  Life.") 

"When  I  first  saw  Mr.  Barrows  I  was  struck  at 
once  by  his  tall,  handsome  figure,  straight  and  grace- 
ful in  spite  of  his  age,  and  by  his  serious  face  stamped 
with  great  benevolence,  a  benevolence  inseparable 
from  his  exquisite  nature.  He  seemed  to  me  superior 
to  other  people,  not  that  he  thought  himself  so,  either 
morally  or  intellectually,  but  because  he  understood 
human  nature  so  well  that  he  was  full  of  pity  and 
pardon  for  its  imperfections.  He  knew  that  it  was 
worth  saving  and  loving.  He  made  an  extraordinary 
impression  on  me  as  one  who  would  bring  peace  and 
love  into  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him  well. 
In  spite  of  all  the  sin  and  sorrow  with  which  he  was 
in  daily  contact  in  his  prison  visitations,  he  was 
always  serene,  and  his  face  was  a  continual  benedic- 
tion. 

"Oh!  that  he  might  know  how  those  who  knew 


136  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

and  loved  him  bless  his  memory !  My  eyes  overflow 
as  I  write  these  words,  but  they  do  not  express  a 
hundredth  part  of  what  I  feel  for  the  noble  man 
whose  beautiful  face  is  ever  before  me.  I  am  happy 
and  proud  to  have  known  even  a  little  of  the  blessed 
soul  of  Samuel  June  Barrows. ' ' 

I  heard  Mr.  Barrows  make  many  addresses  after 
that  first  meeting  at  Lake  Mohonk,  and  he  was  one 
of  the  most  effective  speakers  to  whom  I  have 
listened.  He  had  humour  and  pathos  in  his  soul, 
both  in  rich  measure.  His  presence  was  attractive. 
There  were  personality,  charm  and  magnetism  about 
him.  He  spoke  with  great  freedom,  and  as  in- 
timately as  in  conversation.  I  recall  two  occasions 
especially  where  his  rare  charm  made  itself  felt. 
One  December  evening  he  and  I  were  the  speakers 
together  before  The  Round  Table  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. The  worst  blizzard  of  the  year  struck  the 
city  that  noon  and  by  evening  was  raging  at  its 
fiercest.  We  both  kept  our  appointments,  however, 
and  with  much  difficulty  reached  the  hall.  Hardly 
any  one  else  did.  He  insisted  that  because  the 
dozen  who  had  come  had  made  such  exertion,  we 
must  both  speak  better  than  we  ever  had  before,  for 
their  sakes  (all  this  in  their  hearing,  remember) ; 
that  he  had  his  speech  memorized  and  therefore 
there  was  no  doubt  but  he  could  do  well,  but  that 
the  case  was  different  with  me,  who  had  come  pre- 
pared to  draw  inspiration  from  a  great  assembly; 
that  now  I  had  the  chance  to  show  whether  I  was 
really  possessed  of  my  subject  or  simply  spoke  for 
the  joy  of  talking,  for  one  who  was  really  held  by 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEEOWS  137 

his  ideas  could  speak  to  one  as  well  as  to  many,  and 
thus  he  went  on,  his  eyes  twinkling  and  the  little 
group  hugely  enjoying  the  joke  at  my  expense.  He 
was  perfectly  charming  that  night  and  that  little 
group  will  never  forget  him.  He  spoke  on  "The 
Ethics  of  Modern  Warfare."  I  followed  him  on  a 
related  subject.  But  I  took  occasion  to  tell  the 
audience  the  story  of  Professor  Caird's  preaching 
at  St.  Andrew's  University,  Scotland,  and  Principal 
Tulloch's  comment  on  the  sermon.  The  audience 
caught  the  point  and  laughed  heartily.  It  was  this 
way — Mr.  Barrows  was  fairly  " soaked"  with  Greek 
thought.  In  public  speaking  he  would  quote  four 
times  from  the  Greeks  to  once  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment. This  night  he  quoted  Plato,  Aristotle,  Homer 
and  other  Greeks  repeatedly.  When  I  arose  to 
speak  I  said  quietly:  "Once  when  Professor  Caird 
preached  in  the  parish  Church  of  St.  Andrew's, 
Scotland,  he  quoted  again  and  again  from  the  an- 
cient Greeks  to  sustain  the  ethical  point  he  was 
pressing  home.  After  the  sermon  Principal  Tulloch 
took  his  hand  and  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye  remarked, 
'Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  heathen.'  " 

Another  occasion  which  will  always  be  remem- 
bered by  those  who  were  present  was  when  he  spoke 
in  Pilgrim  Church,  New  York,  on  prison  reform. 
He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  prison  reform  and 
those  who  knew  him  will  recall  how  hard  he  fought 
for  years  to  bring  to  pass  some  of  the  things  that 
Mr.  Osborne  has  so  valiantly  championed  and  so  suc- 
cessfully installed  in  our  prisons.  He  once  told  me 
about  his  experiences  in  Albany.  Year  after  year 


138  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

he  fought  the  whole  graft  system  and  the  whole 
mediaeval  prison  system  there.  The  men  he  had  to 
fight,  the  politicians  and  contractors,  were  the  only 
men  who  shook  his  high  faith  in  the  inherent  nobility 
of  human  nature.  He  knew  all  the  prisoners  in  the 
state  and  they  did  not  discourage  him — the  men 
who  had  connection  with  the  prisons  did.  He  once 
said  to  me  that  these  men  were  the  ones  who  ought 
to  be  in  jail.  He  lived  to  see  many  steps  forward 
taken.  He  would  have  rejoiced  in  Mr.  Osbome's 
reforms  at  Sing  Sing.  He  devoted  the  last  years  of 
his  life  to  getting  the  probation  system  introduced. 
He  loved  boys  and  girls  and  it  broke  his  heart  to  see 
them  sent  off  to  prisons.  And  he  knew  how  little  to 
blame  they  generally  were,  and  furthermore  how 
sure  they  were  to  come  back  more  soiled  in  soul, 
readier  to  become  confirmed  criminals.  He  once 
said  to  me,  in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm:  "I  believe  I 
could  save  every  one  of  those  boys  could  I  but  take 
them  under  my  own  roof."  I  believe  he  could,  for 
children  loved  him  greatly.  In  this  address  he  told 
the  whole  story  of  the  probation  system.  The  aver- 
age boy  who  was  arrested  for  his  first  offense  was 
not  vicious  and  did  not  have  criminal  tendencies. 
He  was  generally  led  astray  by  some  gang  of  older 
boys,  or  did  things  purely  out  of  mischief.  He  grew 
up  on  the  streets  and  had  no  ethical  standard  except 
one:  Keep  out  of  the  policeman's  hands.  This  boy 
commits  some  misdemeanour.  Frightened  to  death 
he  is  carried  before  the  court.  Nothing  would  be 
more  foolish,  nothing  more  un-Christlike  than  to  put 
this  boy  in  a  prison  or  reformatory  where  he  gen- 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BAEEOWS  139 

erally  met  boys  who  had  been  convicted  several 
times,  and  learned  of  crime.  He  also  had  a  stigma 
upon  him  which  unconsciously  urged  him  to  more 
crime.  Brand  a  boy  a  criminal  and  he  will  act  the 
part.  Such  boys  should  be  put  on  probation.  Espe- 
cially should  they  have  the  oversight  of  some  friend. 
The  "big-brother"  was  the  Christian  way  of  dealing 
with  crime.  As  the  speaker  went  on  pleading  for 
these  boys  and  girls  a  spirit  began  to  manifest  itself 
in  the  Church,  such  as  one  feels  occasionally  at  some 
exalted  ceremony  or  at  a  revival  meeting  when  the 
presence  of  God  seems  as  real  as  the  people  who  are 
there.  One  could  see  why  Mr.  Barrows  exercised 
such  influence  on  behalf  of  prison  reform. 

He  was  very  fond  of  music.  He  stole  away  for 
an  hour  every  day  with  flute  or  organ,  both  of  which 
he  played.  He  wrote  not  only  some  unusually  fine 
verses,  but  he  set  them  to  music.  He  joined  the 
Oratorio  Society  of  New  York  for  the  joy  of  rehears- 
ing great  music  once  a  week.  When  he  died  and  a 
Memorial  Service  was  held  for  him  in  New  York 
City,  the  Oratorio  Society,  under  Mr.  Damrosch's 
direction,  came  and  sang  some  of  the  music  he 
loved — Brahm's  Eequiem,  and  Mendelssohn's  "0 
blest  and  happy  they,"  and  some  of  his  own  hymns 
and  music.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  Dr.  Stephen  S. 
"Wise,  and  other  friends  spoke,  but  the  most  im- 
pressive event  of  the  evening  was  when  dear  old  Dr. 
Collyer  arose  and  said  a  closing  word:  "When  he 
talked  it  was  always  about  some  beautiful  thing  he 
wanted  to  do,  some  great,  good  thing." 


I  HAVE  had  many  beautiful  Sundays  in  my  life 
but  perhaps  one  stands  out  above  all  others. 
It  was  in  the  summer  of  1908  and  I  was  spend- 
ing the  month  of  August"  at  Glion,  a  thousand  feet 
up  the  mountain  side,  and  directly  above  Montreux, 
which  lies  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Geneva.  The  whole 
region  is  exquisitely  beautiful  and  full  of  historic 
association.  Those  of  my  readers  who  know  Matthew 
Arnold's  poetry  will  remember  Glion.  From  the 
terrace  of  the  hotel  one  looks  across  the  beautiful 
lake  to  the  snow-capped  mountains  on  the  other  side, 
while  towering  above  one  on  the  left  is  the  long  line 
of  grey  cliffs  known  as  the  Rochers  de  Naye,  now 
reached  by  a  railroad.  (The  sunrises  as  seen  from 
here  are  famous.)  A  thousand  feet  below  one  sees 
the  picturesque  line  of  white  houses  of  Vevey  and 
Montreux,  with  their  red  roofs,  following  the  shore 
of  the  lake  and  ending  with  the  Castle  of  Chillon, 
which  is  built  on  an  island  rock  about  fifty  feet  from 
the  shore,  so  that  its  famous  dungeons  are  really,  as 
Byron  pictures  them,  under  the  sea. 

I  had  come  to  Montreux  mostly  to  rest,  but  I  had 
chosen  it  in  preference  to  Lucerne,  partly  because, 
while  in  London,  my  friend  Rev.  J.  Warschauer  had 

140 


JOHN  HUNTER  141 

told  me  about  a  wonderful  school  of  theology  that 
was  going  to  be  held  there  for  a  week  in  August. 
It  was  the  time  when  the  "New  Theology"  move- 
ment of  Mr.  Campbell  was  at  its  height  and  when 
he  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  movement,  Hunter, 
Warschauer,  Wallace,  and  Rhondda  Williams,  had 
hundreds  of  disciples  all  over  England.  Montreux 
is  easily  reached  from  England  and  has  always  been 
a  favourite  resort  for  English  people.  Some  one  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  holding  a  week's  summer  school 
of  theology  there,  thus  happily  combining  vacation 
and  instruction.  As  a  result  it  was  advertised,  and 
I  arranged  my  dates  to  be  in  Montreux  when  it  came. 
Meantime  others  of  the  leaders  had  invited  me  to 
participate  in  it. 

About  one  hundred  came  to  Montreux  and  I  had 
dinner  with  them  on  the  night  of  their  arrival.  I  sat 
at  the  teachers'  table,  John  Hunter  on  my  right, 
Reginald  J.  Campbell  on  my  left,  and  the  other 
friends  near  by.  (One  interesting  thing  about  this 
dinner  should  be  noted — there  was  a  special  table  for 
vegetarians,  where  twenty  or  more  of  the  party  sat, 
They  were  not  faring  sumptuously.  The  classic 
table  d'hote  dinner  on  the  Continent  does  not  lean 
towards  vegetables  and  the  average  Continental  hotel 
proprietor  always  loses  his  head  when  asked  to  pro- 
vide a  meal  out  of  the  accepted,  traditional  order. 
When  a  vegetarian  appears,  the  landlord  always 
runs  into  his  office  and  leaves  him  to  the  mercies  of 
the  bewildered  head  waiter  who  falls  back  on  milk 
and  string  beans.)  The  sessions  of  the  school  opened 
that  evening  with  a  lecture  by  Warschauer  on  the 


142  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

present  status  of  New  Testament  study — and  no  one 
knew  more  about  it  than  he.  The  following  days 
were  devoted  to  two  lectures  in  the  hotel  parlours  in 
the  morning,  and  a  lecture  and  discussion  in  the 
evening.  But  on  Saturday  it  was  announced  that 
the  officers  of  the  city  had  offered  the  school  the 
use  of  the  church  for  the  following  Sunday  and  that 
Eeginald  J.  Campbell  would  preach  in  the  morning 
and  Dr.  John  Hunter  in  the  afternoon  at  four 
o'clock. 

When  I  picked  up  the  paper  recently  and  read 
of  the  death  in  London  of  John  Hunter,  im- 
mediately the  picture  of  that  beautiful  Sunday 
flashed  into  my  mind.  The  Eglise  Nationale  is  a 
pretty  stone  structure  perched  above  the  city  on  the 
foot-path  that  leads  up  to  Glion,  and  near  the  road 
to  Les  Avants.  On  that  glorious  Sunday  morning 
I  came  down  from  Glion  and  there  at  the  door  of 
the  church  stood  Campbell  and  Hunter.  It  was  some 
time  before  the  service  and  we  walked  over  to  the 
wall  which  runs  along  the  south  side  of  the  church, 
making  a  sort  of  terrace,  and  stood  silent  for  a  while, 
entranced  by  the  indescribable  beauty,  when  Dr. 
Hunter  quietly  remarked:  "It  is  almost  impossible 
to  believe  that  there  can  be  any  pain  or  suffering  in 
the  world  when  one  looks  at  this  scene  of  light  and 
beauty."  We  went  into  the  church  and  when  Mr. 
Campbell  went  up  into  the  pulpit  he  announced  as 
his  text:  "Neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain." 
Dr.  Hunter  and  I  looked  at  each  other  and  smiled. 
It  was  wonderful  preaching  to  which  we  listened. 
Mr.  Campbell  is  a  very  great  preacher,  but  he 


JOHN  HUNTER  143 

was  inspired  that  morning.  Perhaps  the  sur- 
roundings added  to  the  spell,  for,  from  where  Dr. 
Hunter  and  I  sat,  we  could  look  out  over  what  many 
people  consider,  I  suppose,  the  most  beautiful  view 
in  the  world.  I  remember  that  after  a  while  the 
striking  personality  of  the  preacher,  the  beautiful 
words  he  was  saying,  the  almost  ineffable  beauty  of 
lake  and  snow-capped  mountains,  seemed  blended 
and  it  was  as  though  one  had  been  transported  out 
of  the  world  of  things  into  some  realm  of  the  spirit 
where  only  beauty  held  sway.  A  very  solemn  hush 
was  on  the  congregation  when  the  services  closed. 
But  as  Dr.  Hunter  and  I  came  out  of  the  church 
together  he  turned  to  me  and  remarked — remember 
this  was  the  time  when  the  theological  storm  was 
raging  about  Mr.  Campbell — "How  far  off  the  New 
Theology  controversy  seems  this  morning.  There  is 
no  New  or  Old  Theology  when  the  preacher  gives 
you  a  glimpse  of  heaven." 

We  assembled  at  the  church  again  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  The  softer  light  of  evening  was 
now  brooding  upon  the  landscape,  the  sun  was 
already  behind  the  Savoy  Alps,  and  its  rays  were 
obliquely  striking  the  snow  on  the  Dent  du  Midi, 
turning  the  white  into  a  rose  colour,  which  deepened 
as  the  service  went  on.  At  this  service  I  sat  with 
Mr.  Campbell  while  Dr.  Hunter  went  into  the  pulpit. 
Except  that  I  made  a  rule  at  the  beginning  of  these 
reminiscences  not  to  say  much  about  living  preachers 
I  should  like  to  draw  a  comparison  between  Mr. 
Campbell  and  Dr.  Hunter  as  preachers.  I  will  only 
remark  that  Dr.  Hunter  was  a  mystic  as  Mr.  Camp- 


144  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

bell  is,  and  that  a  shimmer  of  other  worlds  played 
over  all  his  sermons  as  it  does  over  Mr.  Campbell's. 
In  the  pulpit  perhaps  one's  first  thought  of  Mr. 
Campbell  was  of  a  saint,  while  one's  first  thought  of 
Dr.  Hunter  was  of  the  prophet.  Yet  Mr.  Campbell 
is  a  prophet  and  Dr.  Hunter  was  a  saint.  I  had 
heard  Dr.  Hunter  lecture  in  the  course  of  the  Sum- 
mer School  but  this  was  the  first  time  I  had  heard 
him  preach.  I  could  not  help  felicitating  myself  that 
I  was  hearing  him  under  such  circumstances.  His 
text  that  afternoon  was  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul  and 
with  all  thy  mind."  For  fifty  minutes  we  sat  en- 
thralled by  the  depth  of  thought,  the  spiritual  in- 
sight, and  the  passion  of  delivery.  Few  men  had 
deeper,  clearer  insight  into  the  spiritual  nature  of 
men  than  did  Dr.  Hunter.  He  had  that  wonderful 
gift  of  analysis  that  belonged  to  Newman  and 
Munger.  The  intellect  was  delighted  when  he 
preached,  at  the  same  time  that  the  soul  was  stirred. 
He  had  also  some  of  that  power  which  he  had  at- 
tributed to  Mr.  Campbell  in  the  morning,  of  giving 
his  hearers  a  peep  into  heaven.  Indeed  this  is  a 
large  part  of  the  preacher's  task,  to  give  us  glimpses 
of  that  heavenly  life  which  Christ  wanted  to  make 
real  on  the  earth.  It  was  noticeable  in  Mr.  Camp- 
bell's sermon  of  the  morning  that  the  time  when 
there  should  be  no  more  pain  was  to  come  in  this 
world. 

I  was  staying  at  the  Park  Hotel,  Glion,  a  thousand 
feet  above  Montreux.  A  little  shoulder  of  the  moun- 
tain projects  here,  and  on  it  the  village  of  twenty 


JOHN  HUNTER  145 

houses  and  three  or  four  hotels  is  built.  It  is  reached 
by  a  funicular  from  Montreux,  and  the  ratchet  road 
up  to  Caux  and  the  Rochers  de  Naye  starts  from 
Glion.  At  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  the  school, 
I  brought  Hunter,  Campbell,  Rhondda  Williams, 
"Warschauer  and  Hugh  Wallace  of  the  Anerly 
Church,  London,  and  joint  author  with  Warschauer 
of  the  famous  "Credo,"  up  the  mountain  to  lunch 
with  me  at  Glion.  It  was  a  wonderful  day.  The 
Summer  School  had  been  a  great  success,  and  the 
last  lecture  had  just  been  given.  All  were  in  holiday 
mood  and  we  had  a  glorious  time.  It  was  with  some 
feeling  of  pride,  I  must  confess,  that  I  told  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  hotel  that  I  was  bringing  up  to  lunch 
five  of  the  most  famous  British  preachers.  He  met 
us  at  the  door  with  profuse  bows  and  conducted  us 
to  our  table.  There  were  about  fifteen  English  peo- 
ple staying  at  the  hotel  and  they  recognized  Mr. 
Campbell  at  once,  for  his  picture  had  been  con- 
tinually in  the  papers  for  months,  owing  to  the 
"New  Theology"  storm.  Then  there  was  great 
curiosity  to  know  who  the  others  were,  which  curi- 
osity the  proprietor  satisfied  as  best  he  could.  After 
luncheon  we  went  out  and  sat  for  three  hours  in  the 
little  summer  house  which  every  sojourner  at  Glion 
knows,  and  which  seems  to  hang  right  out  over  Mon- 
treux and  the  green  lake  below — for  Lake  Geneva  is 
green,  not  blue.  The  talk  turned  upon  the  New 
Theology  controversy  and  there  was  much  joking. 
I  must  not  repeat  it  for  all  but  one  of  the  group  are 
living.  But  I  wrote  down  much  of  it  that  evening, 
and  it  will  make  interesting  reading  some  day.  One 


146  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

could  see  a  certain  reverence  in  all  the  group  for 
Dr.  Hunter — and  yet  he  entered  into  the  fun  as 
heartily  as  any  one  when  the  fate  of  Mr.  Campbell 
was  pictured  if  two  well-known  leaders  of  the  Free 
Churches  could  have  their  way  with  him.  It  was  a 
great  day.  Those  of  the  party  who  had  copies  of 
their  books  autographed  them  for  me  when  we  re- 
turned to  Montreux  and  before  me  as  I  write  lie  Mr. 
Campbell's  "The  New  Theology,"  Warschauer's 
"The  New  Evangel:  Studies  in  the  New  Theology," 
T.  Rhondda  Williams'  "The  Evangel  of  the  New 
Theology,"  and  Wallace's  "Credo:  Studies  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed,"  with 'authors'  inscriptions  in  them. 
These  are  the  four  books  which,  appearing  simul- 
taneously, interpreted  the  "New  Theology"  move- 
ment to  the  world,  and  which  were  reviewed  in  every 
tongue  and  nation.  On  the  way  down  the  hill  we 
stopped  for  a  moment  at  the  grave  of  Vinet.  Then 
we  separated.  Mr.  Campbell,  Mr.  Williams  and  Mr. 
Wallace  went  back  to  England,  Dr.  Warschauer 
stayed  on  at  Montreux  to  swim  around  Lake  Geneva 
(he  is  one  of  the  most  famous  swimmers  in  England), 
and  Dr.  Hunter  went  for  a  brief  sojourn  at  beautiful 
Les  Avants  across  the  ravine  from  Glion. 

Two  or  three  days  after  the  Summer  School  of 
Theology  had  closed  at  Montreux,  I  received  an  in- 
vitation from  Dr.  Hunter,  who  was  staying  at  Les 
Avants,  to  come  over  and  have  luncheon  with  him. 
I  walked  over  from  Glion,  following  the  road  along 
the  side  of  the  spur  of  the  mountain  on  which  Glion 
stands  up  to  the  head  of  the  ravine  which  separates 
it  from  the  other  spur  on  which  the  hotels  of  Les 


JOHN  HUNTEE  147 

Avants  are  built,  and  crossed  by  a  stone  bridge  over 
to  the  house  where  Dr.  Hunter  was  staying.  We 
lunched  together  and  then  my  friend  proposed  that 
we  walk  down  the  ravine  to  Montreux.  It  is  a 
beautiful  walk,  following  the  rushing  stream,  the 
path  often  overshadowed  by  great  rocks  and  over- 
hanging trees,  while  now  and  then  one  caught  ex- 
quisite glimpses  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva  far  below. 

About  half-way  down  we  sat  on  a  big  rock  for  a 
half  hour's  rest  and  I  asked  Dr.  Hunter  to  tell  me 
how  he,  reared  among  Scotchmen  of  the  most  ortho- 
dox type,  came  to  be  one  of  the  exponents  of  the 
liberal  and  most  advanced  movement  in  theology. 

"It  was  largely  due  to  Frederick  Dennison 
Maurice,"  he  said.  The  story  was  as  follows:  He 
was  born  in  Aberdeen.  He  was  a  shy  and  retiring 
boy,  given  to  books  rather  than  sports  or  games. 
He  saw  little  of  other  boys  early  in  his  youth  and 
developed  a  consuming  interest  in  religion.  He  read 
every  book  on  religion  on  which  he  could  lay  his 
hands.  When  hardly  more  than  a  boy  he  began 
preaching.  He  was  denied  a  university  training, 
but  studied  in  night  schools.  At  the  age  of  seven- 
teen he  entered  the  Nottingham  Theological  Insti- 
tute. Afterwards  he  went  to  the  Spring  Hill 
College,  Birmingham.  It  was  there  he  came  under 
the  spell  of  Maurice.  He  devoured  every  word  of 
the  great  teacher  and  became  his  ardent  disciple. 
When  only  twenty-two  he  was  called  to  the  famous 
Salem  Chapel,  York.  There,  in  that  large  church, 
he  found  himself.  For  eleven  years  he  preached  to 
a  congregation  averaging  fifteen  hundred  people. 


148  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

The  congregation  had  not  been  accustomed  to  his 
type  of  preaching  and  he  lost  some  from  the  church, 
but  others  were  attracted.  During  these  years  he 
studied  night  and  day.  Not  only  did  he  prepare 
three  sermons  a  week  with  great  care — all  written, 
he  said,  if  I  remember  rightly — but  he  read  the  great 
books,  both  ancient  and  modern. 

He  left  York  to  take  the  Congregational  Church 
at  Hull.  But  he  was  not  allowed  to  remain  there 
long.  William  Pulsford,  the  famous  pastor  of 
Trinity  Church,  Glasgow,  died,  and  the  church  called 
Hunter  to  its  ministry.  For  fifteen  years  he 
preached  to  congregations  that  filled  the  building. 
There  were  many  students  in  his  audience  and  his 
ministry  to  them  had  much  to  do  with  the  shaping  of 
his  thought.  "One  has  to  make  religion  a  very  real 
thing  if  he  is  to  hold  students  from  week  to  week, ' ' 
he  said.  ' '  One  has  to  relate  religion  to  life  and  cast 
his  message  in  the  thought-channels  of  the  times. ' ' 

After  fifteen  years  at  Glasgow,  he  was  enticed 
away  to  London,  to  the  King's  Weigh  House  Church. 
The  years  of  his  pastorate  there  were  not  so  happy 
as  the  Glasgow  years  had  been.  He  had  to  create  a 
congregation,  whereas  at  Glasgow  the  congregation 
was  there  to  meet  him.  He  drew  many  thoughtful 
people  to  Weigh  House,  but  they  came  as  listeners 
and  the  church  itself  was  a  problem  and  he  was  pre- 
eminently a  preacher,  not  an  administrator.  So, 
when  the  Glasgow  congregation  begged  him  to  return, 
he  went  back  with  real  delight.  For  another  nine 
years  he  preached  from  the  pulpit  of  Trinity  Church, 
and  they  were  years  of  great  joy. 


JOHN  HUNTER  149 

In  1913  his  heart  became  affected  and  he  was 
obliged  to  resign  and  seek  rest.  He  never  again 
felt  able  to  undertake  the  care  of  a  great  parish. 
Henceforth,  his  preaching  was  to  be  as  minister  at 
large.  He  visited  many  churches,  and  series  of 
special  "preaching  services"  were  arranged  for  him 
in  London,  to  which  many  came.  His  interest,  he 
said,  had  always  been  in  religion  as  an  experience 
rather  than  as  a  creed.  He  thought  that  what  the 
world  wanted  and  needed  was  a  vision  of  Christ 
and  His  outlook  upon  life.  He  felt  that  the 
creeds  and  confessions  had  often  concealed  the 
real  Christ — the  Christ  who  was  the  revelation  of  the 
heart  and  will  of  God,  and  the  teacher  of  the  way, 
the  truth  and  the  abundant  life.  He  preached 
Christ  as  the  answer  to  the  soul's  questionings.  He 
was  always  interested,  he  told  me,  in  noting  how  the 
souls  troubled  with  doubts  responded  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  and  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  He  told 
me  of  the  remarkable  response  a  certain  sermon 
preached  in  a  hall  in  London  two  years  before,  on 
"The  God  of  Jesus,"  elicited  from  men  who  had 
been  greatly  perplexed  over  the  Christian  doctrines. 
(In  this  sermon  Dr.  Hunter  summed  up  Jesus'  teach- 
ing of  God  and  His  revelation  of  God  in  His  own 
life  and  death;  in  three  famous  phrases  "God  is 
Spirit, "  "  God  is  Light "  and  "  God  is  Love. ' '  These 
three  phrases  might  very  truthfully  be  used  as  the 
heart  of  Dr.  Hunter's  own  message.)  He  went  on 
to  say  that  if  he  had  been  successful  as  a  preacher  it 
had  been  because  he  had  in  every  sermon  tried  to 
convey  a  sense  of  the  presence  of  God.  He  criticized 


150  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

both  much  of  the  preaching  of  the  day  and  much  of 
the  worship  in  the  churches  as  lacking  in  awe,  rever- 
ence, mystery,  the  sense  of  God,  the  presence  of 
divine  and  holy  things.  It  was  this  lack  of  awe  and 
adoration,  of  reverence  and  the  consciousness  of  God 
that  led  him  to  prepare  the  book,  ''Devotional  Serv- 
ices for  Public  Worship,"  which  has  been  widely 
used  in  Great  Britain.  He  also  felt  that  the  Church 
had  neglected  the  great  ethical  note  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  Thoroughly  evangelical  in  spirit,  he  had 
no  patience  with  a  religion  that  did  not  issue  in  con- 
duct, and  he  felt  that  the  Christian  rule  of  conduct 
must  be  made  the  basis  of  the  State  and  the  nation 
as  much  as  of  the  individual. 

For  three  hours  we  talked.  It  was  going  on  to- 
wards evening  when  we  reached  Montreux.  Together 
we  went  and  bought  some  coloured  pictures  of  the 
beautifully  situated  church  where  he  had  preached 
the  Sunday  before.  The  picture  is  one  taken  at  an 
angle  that  shows  the  wonderful  view  of  lake  and 
snow-capped  mountain  beyond.  We  said  good-bye 
and  parted,  he  to  take  the  electric  train  back  to  Les 
Avants,  I  to  ascend  by  funicular  to  Glion.  It  was 
the  last  time  I  ever  saw  him.  He  had  been  an  in- 
valid for  some  time  before  he  died,  and  the  death  of 
his  greatly  loved  son  in  the  war  hastened  the  end. 


XIV 
AMORY  H.  BRADFORD 

THE  other  day  I  happened  to  pick  up  a  book 
which  I  had  read  ten  years  ago  with  all 
the  delight  that  one  experiences  in  coming 
upon  a  new  domain.  It  bears  the  significant  title 
"The  Inward  Light"  and  is  the  one  book  into  which 
Dr.  Amory  H.  Bradford  poured  all  his  soul.  It  is 
also  the  expression  of  his  fundamental  religious  con- 
victions— or  shall  I  say  conviction,  for  there  was  only 
one  fundamental  article  in  his  creed,  namely,  the 
direct  apprehension  of  God  in  the  believer's  soul. 
All  else  was  but  explanatory  of,  or  contributory  to, 
this  one  experience.  Religion  was  to  him  the  ex- 
perience of  God  rather  than  definition.  Christ,  holy 
men  of  all  ages,  the  Bible,  holy  books  of  all  times, 
were  valuable  as  interpreters  of  the  God  he  knew  in 
his  own  soul  rather  than  as  revelations  of  God.  He 
was  a  mystic  through  and  through.  He  walked  with 
God,  he  saw  God  in  all  divine  and  beautiful  things, 
and  God  was  the  inward  light,  the  indwelling  con- 
science. His  attitudes,  his  thoughts,  his  actions, 
were  all  guided  by  this  inward  light.  Did  some  per- 
plexity of  conduct  present  itself  to  him,  he  consulted 
neither  men  nor  books,  but  the  indwelling  light. 
This  inward  light  could  be  the  possession  of  all  pure 
151 


152  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

men.    It  was  the  Light  that  lighteth  all  men  coming 
into  the  world. 

This  inward  light  was  evident  in  his  face,  in  his 
voice,  in  his  acts  and  in  his  words.  He  had  a  face 
of  peculiar  light  and  sweetness,  and  the  eyes  were 
at  times  tender,  at  times,  when  he  was  deeply  stirred 
over  some  iniquity,  burning  flames  of  fire.  His  voice 
was  one  of  those  the  hearer  never  forgets,  vibrant 
with  personality,  wonderfully  laden  with  passion, 
now  tremulous  with  pleading,  now  ringing  with 
great  conviction.  His  thought  was  saturated  with 
emotion.  He  had  a  fine  intellect ;  but  all  his  thought 
was  distilled  through  the  alembic  of  his  heart  and 
came  forth  glowing  with  fervour,  and  revealing  the 
light  and  experience  of  the  soul.  His  life  was  an 
incarnation,  for  it  was  the  daily  expression  of  a 
heart  possessed  of  God.  It  was  full  of  sweetness  and 
tenderness.  He  could  not  pass  a  dog  or  a  child  with- 
out stopping  to  pat  its  head.  All  the  babies  in 
Montclair  stretched  out  their  arms  towards  him  if 
they  saw  him  coming.  He  could  not  help  sharing 
all  the  troubles,  sorrows  and  defeats  of  his  people  as 
he  shared  all  their  successes  and  their  joys.  Indeed, 
some  thought  he  was  too  tender.  They  thought  it 
impaired  his  critical  faculties  and  his  judgments  of 
men.  Once  a  man,  seeking  a  new  pastor  for  the 
church  to  which  he  belonged,  said:  "It  is  of  no  use 
to  ask  Dr.  Bradford  about  the  candidates  we  are  dis- 
cussing. His  heart  is  so  big  that  he  could  never 
bring  himself  to  consider  the  weaknesses  and  failings 
of  any  man."  He  simply  could  not  bear  to  hurt 
any  one's  feelings.  All  men  were  perfect  in  his  eyes, 


AMOBY  H.  BEADFOED  153 

and  he  saw  the  world  through  a  rosy  mist  of  pitying 
love. 

He  served  but  one  church  during  his  life,  and  his 
ministry  became  international.  He  went  to  Mont- 
clair,  N.  J.,  straight  from  the  schools,  and  stayed 
with  the  First  Congregational  Church  for  fifty 
years.  He  and  the  church  grew  together.  At  the 
end  of  fifty  years  it  was  one  of  the  strongest  churches 
in  the  denomination,  and  he  was  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Christian  Church.  He  rapidly  came  into 
prominence  as  a  preacher,  and  as  book  after  book 
appeared  he  became  widely  known  as  a  leader  in  the 
liberal  school  of  thought.  For  several  years  he 
served  as  one  of  the  editors  of  The  Outlook.  He  was 
made  president  of  the  American  Missionary  Society 
and  afterwards  Moderator  of  the  National  Council. 
It  was  he  who  inaugurated  the  custom  of  the  moder- 
ator's  visiting  the  churches.  Upon  his  election  he 
got  a  leave  of  absence  from  his  own  church  and  made 
a  tour  of  all  the  principal  Congregational  churches 
of  the  nation.  It  is  interesting  to  remember,  now 
that  it  has  become  an  established  custom,  that  Dr. 
Bradford  was  the  target  of  considerable  criticism  at 
the  time.  He  was  accused  of  setting  himself  up  as 
"archbishop,"  and  even  "pope."  If  I  remember 
rightly,  one  or  two  churches  refused  to  open  their 
pulpits  to  him  on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  more 
claim  on  them  than  had  any  other  minister.  He  was 
so  democratic  that  I  have  no  doubt  that,  if  he  replied 
to  any  such  charge,  he  said,  "I  agree  with  you  abso- 
lutely." But,  to  any  one  who  knew  Dr.  Bradford, 
the  charge  of  usurping  authority  brings  a  smile. 


154  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

He  was  so  sweetly  human,  so  democratic,  so  modest. 
He  refused  to  the  last  to  wear  a  gown  in  the  pulpit, 
on  the  ground  that  it  might  tend  to  set  him  apart 
f,rom  his  people.  His  choir  was  gowned,  but  not  he. 
He  believed  in  the  priesthood  of  all  believers,  al- 
though it  is  doubtful  if  the  idea  of  priesthood  made 
much  appeal  to  him.  He  was  so  directly  conscious 
of  God  Himself,  that  he  thought  others  must  have 
that  same  consciousness.  And  if  one  had  the  Eternal 
Goodness,  the  Father  of  Love,  the  Inward  Light,  in 
one's  own  soul,  what  need  was  there  of  priests?  In- 
deed, when  I  once  said  to  Dr.  Bradford,  after  read- 
ing "The  Inward  Light,"  "You  are  a  Quaker,"  he 
simply  smiled  and  said  "Perhaps  I  am."  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  draw  the  line  between  "The  Inward  Light" 
and  John  Fox's  "Journal." 

Dr.  Bradford  became  very  popular  in  England  and 
was  in  great  demand  there  as  a  preacher.  After  a 
while  it  became  his  custom  to  spend  his  summers  in 
preaching  in  the  English  churches.  Large  congre- 
gations always  welcomed  him  at  Birmingham,  Wol- 
verhampton,  Bradford,  Norwich,  and  in  the  leading 
London  pulpits.  He  was  approached  again  and  again 
by  English  churches  when  their  pulpits  became 
vacant.  There  was  a  fervour  in  his  delivery,  a  pas- 
sionate note  in  his  speech,  that  appealed  to  the 
English  congregations,  accustomed  as  they  are  to 
more  fervent  and  passionate  speech  in  the  pulpit  than 
are  we.  Often  when  English  Congregationalists 
were  passing  through  New  York,  they  made  the  half- 
hour 's  journey  to  Montclair  on  a  Sunday  morning 
to  hear  Dr.  Bradford.  After  Mr.  Beecher's  death 


AMOEY  H.  BEADFOED  155 

he  was  for  some  time  the  American  preacher  best 
known  in  England. 

Just  before  he  came  to  his  fiftieth  anniversary  a 
fatal  and  lingering  disease  came  upon  him.  With 
able  assistants,  he  carried  on  his  work  for  some 
months,  preaching  at  the  morning  service.  When  he 
became  too  feeble  to  preach  any  more,  he  still  re- 
mained as  pastor,  and  visiting  preachers  came  to  fill 
the  pulpit.  But  he  always  took  part  in  the  services 
and  for  some  time  followed  the  custom  of  reading  a 
two-minute  message  to  his  people.  This  became  al- 
most as  holy  a  word  to  them  as  the  lesson  from  the 
Scriptures.  In  fact,  it  was  a  scripture  from  his  own 
soul.  (A  collection  of  these  messages  was  made  and 
was  published  under  the  title  "Preludes  and  Inter- 
ludes." They  are  full  of  real  truth  and  revelation 
of  divine  things.)  Two  or  three  times  I  was  the 
preacher  at  these  services  and  I  was  deeply  touched 
by  the  great  preacher,  who,  with  trembling  body  and 
feeble  voice,  spoke,  like  St.  John  of  old,  his  beautiful 
last  words  to  his  people.  I  happened  to  be  in  the 
pulpit  the  Sunday  he  read  the  most  notable  one  of 
all,  one  which  went  all  over  the  country,  the  one 
called  "The  Categorical  Imperative."  The  general 
point  was  "What  kind  of  a  world  would  this  be  if 
all  men  lived  as  we  live?"  Let  me  quote  here  some 
lines  from  this  remarkable  epistle  to  his  church: 

"Suppose  all  the  citizens  of  this  community  were 
to  take  the  same  amount  of  interest  in  its  affairs,  and 
give  to  them  the  same  amount  of  time  and  effort  that 
we  do,  and  no  more,  what  kind  of  a  community  would 
this  be? 


156  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

' '  Suppose  that  all  men  were  to  do  as  much  to  help 
the  deserving  poor  to  get  work  as  we  do,  and  no 
more,  how  many  of  them  would  have  work? 

' '  Suppose  that  all  our  people  should  give  as  much 
of  their  property,  in  proportion  to  their  ability,  to 
missions  and  to  moral  reform,  as  we  give,  what 
would  be  the  condition  of  the  world  ? 

"Suppose  that  all  who  attend  church,  who  are  able 
to  be  prompt,  should  be  as  prompt  in  attendance  as 
we  are,  and  no  more,  what  time  would  our  church 
services  begin? 

"Suppose  that  all  who  buy  and  sell  property 
should  be  as  anxious  that  those  with  whom  they  deal 
should  get  their  full  rights  as  we  are  in  our  dealings, 
would  there  be  more  or  less  harmony  in  society  ? 

' '  Suppose  that  all  the  whites  in  the  country  should 
treat  the  coloured  people  as  you  and  I  do,  would  this 
be  a  better  and  a  happier  nation? 

"Suppose  that  all  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  should  keep  as  near  to  the  example  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  we  do,  would  it  be  easier  or  more 
difficult  for  others  to  be  Christians? 

"Suppose  that  all  men  tried  to  live  by  the  Golden 
Rule  as  earnestly  as  we  do,  and  no  more,  could 
brotherly  love  be  promoted? 

' '  Suppose  that  all  other  Christians  were  as  anxious 
that  sinners  should  be  saved  as  we  are,  and  no  more 
so,  how  many  would  be  reached  by  the  Gospel  ? ' ' 

My  first  recollections  of  Dr.  Bradford  are  asso- 
ciated with  the  various  meetings  of  the  Missionary 
Societies  of  the  Congregational  Churches,  and  of  the 
National  Council.  He  was  always  prominent  in  the 


"  AMOEY  H.  BEADFOED  157 

affairs  of  the  denomination,  for  he  was  a  great  be- 
liever in  Congregationalism.  Descended  directly 
from  Bradford  of  Plymouth  fame,  he  loved  democ- 
racy in  State  and  Church.  But  at  these  meetings  he 
was  a  great  spiritual  force  and  his  addresses  always 
struck  a  deeply  religious  note.  Sometimes  they  were 
very  radical.  He  always  spoke  as  he  felt  and  be- 
lieved. Had  he  been  a  man  of  lesser  spiritual  force 
and  had  he  not  been  of  so  sweet  a  nature  and  so 
greatly  beloved  he  would  have  been  continually  in 
trouble.  Occasionally  he  did  bring  down  the  wrath 
of  the  officers  and  trustees  of  the  missionary  or- 
ganizations upon  himself.  The  Commissioners  of 
the  American  Board  feared  that  many  of  the  con- 
servative churches  would  withhold  their  contribu- 
tions when,  occasionally,  he  would  launch  into  some 
burning  diatribe  against  those  who  would  measure 
the  mercy  of  God  by  a  pet  theological  shibboleth  or 
a  doctrine  based  upon  one  text  of  Scripture,  and  that 
text  capable  of  more  than  one  meaning.  To  Dr. 
Bradford's  mind  the  presumption  of  knowledge  as 
to  what  God  would  do  with  His  children  in  the  next 
world  amounted  almost  to  blasphemy,  and  those 
people  also  who  pretended  to  exact  knowledge  of  all 
of  God's  purposes  and  intentions  irritated  him  be- 
yond measure.  To  him  the  ' '  measure  of  God 's  mer- 
cies was  broader  than  the  measure  of  man's  mind." 
He  was  also  extremely  liberal  in  matters  of  prac- 
tical religion.  He  was  always  greatly  interested  in 
the  negro.  He  believed  in  democracy,  consequently 
he  believed  that  the  negro  should  be  treated  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  and  principles  of  democracy, 


158  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

which  meant  that  the  negro  problem  was  not  a  race 
problem,  but  one  of  individuals.  In  a  democracy 
there  are  no  castes,  races,  distinguishing  lines  based 
on  anything  but  character.  Japanese  and  Chinese 
were  not  to  be  treated  as  of  different  races,  negroes 
were  not  to  be  dealt  with  on  the  ground  of  colour, 
Jews  were  not  to  be  set  apart  by  their  religion — 
character,  ability,  loyalty  were  the  only  tests  per- 
missible in  a  democracy.  On  this  he  insisted  re- 
gardless of  consequences.  He  felt  that  the  United 
States  had,  as  President  Wilson  feels  to-day,  no 
right  to  preach  democracy  to  China  and  Japan  when 
we  did  not  practice  it  at  home.  I  remember  so  well 
the  tumult  he  made  by  his  straightforward  remarks 
on  this  subject  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  several 
years  ago.  His  presidential  address  dealt  largely 
with  this  problem  of  backward  races  inside  a  democ- 
racy. He  was  insisting  with  all  the  eloquence  at  his 
command  that  the  coloured  man  be  treated  accord- 
ing to  his  character  and  attainments  rather  than  as 
a  member  of  a  race.  He  thought  the  social  question 
was  largely  a  bugaboo  and  would  take  care  of  itself, 
and  then  he  said,  "If  occasionally  a  coloured  man 
married  a  white  woman — well,  the  heavens  would 
not  fall."  It  was  this  incidental  statement  that 
created  the  storm.  It  was  flashed  over  the  wires 
of  the  country.  Immediately  after  the  meeting  one 
of  the  officers  of  the  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion came  up  to  me,  and,  with  fire  in  his  eyes,  said : 
"That  was  a  most  regrettable  address.  It  will  cost 
our  treasury  a  hundred  thousand  dollars."  I 


AMOEY  H.  BBADFOED  169 

quietly  replied  that  I  did  not  think  the  knowledge 
of  that  fact  would  have  deterred  Dr.  Bradford  from 
making  the  remark.  About  ten  minutes  afterwards 
I  repeated  this  remark  to  Dr.  Bradford.  He  smiled 
and  said:  "Truth  is  worth  more  than  dollars." 

During  the  last  ten  years  of  Dr.  Bradford's  life  I 
saw  him  often,  and  heard  him  make  many  addresses 
and  deliver  many  sermons.  When  I  was  pastor  of 
the  Congregational  Church  at  Lenox,  Mass.,  I  per- 
suaded him  to  come  up  and  address  the  Berkshire 
Congregational  Club  at  Pittsfield.  The  club  looked 
forward  with  eagerness  to  his  coming  and  it  would 
have  been  a  great  evening  except  for  the  fact  that 
the  club  did  what  clubs  and  other  church  organiza- 
tions have  a  habit  of  doing,  permitted  two  or  three 
representatives  of  various  causes  five  minutes  each\ 
to  present  their  claims.  Dr.  Bradford  had  to  catch 
a  certain  train  back  to  New  York;  the  result  was 
that  when  it  came  time  for  him  to  speak  he  had  only 
about  twenty  minutes  left.  He  was  quite  disturbed 
over  the  whole  thing  and  hardly  knew  what  to  do  as 
he  had  his  address  in  manuscript.  He  spoke  for 
twenty  minutes  and  disappeared.  But  we  had  had 
him  in  our  house  during  the  afternoon  before  the 
dinner  and  had  enjoyed  a  most  delightful  conversa- 
tion. We  talked  of  many  things  but  mostly  of 
'preaching.  He  had  known  intimately  all  the  great 
English  preachers  of  his  day  as  well  as  the  American. 
He  did  not  have  the  feeling  of  some  of  his  contem- 
poraries that  all  the  great  preachers  had  passed 
away  with  the  preceding  generation.  He  did,  how- 
ever, call  attention  to  this  interesting  fact  that  per- 


160  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

haps  the  preachers  of  to-day  did  not  measure  up  to 
the  giants  of  yesterday  in  intellectual  force.  He 
thought  this  was  largely  due  to  the  change  of  em- 
phasis in  preaching.  Such  a  man  as  Dale,  for 
instance,  preached  to  a  generation  interested  in 
theology  and  doctrine.  The  character  of  all  his 
preaching  tended  to  produce  great  power  of  philo- 
sophic thought,  it  was  of  a  sort  to  exercise  the  intel- 
lectual faculties.  Our  age  is  interested  in  the  social 
question  and  the  application  of  Christianity  to  the 
affairs  of  life.  The  modern  preacher  has  to  deal 
with  these  problems.  He  is  a  reformer  rather  than 
a  philosopher,  a  statesman  rather  than  a  theologian. 
But  he  is  more  prophetic  perhaps  than  his  predeces- 
sor. He  is  catching  glimpses  of  a  new  world  order 
of  which  the  great  men  of  the  last  generation  had 
not  dreamed.  His  preaching  has  a  nearness  to  the 
actual  life  of  man,  an  application  of  religion  to  all 
the  social  organization,  a  directness  that  was  miss- 
ing from  much  of  the  older  preaching.  Many  of  the 
sermons  of  the  great  preachers  to  whom  our  fathers 
listened  would  sound  remote  to  our  ears.  Some  of 
the  sermons  of  to-day  are  really  very  fine  in  their 
realization  of  just  the  truth  men  need  for  living 
their  real  lives.  The  true  object  of  preaching  is  to 
relate  eternity  to  time — eternal  principles  for  guid- 
ance in  the  midst  of  time. 

We  had  considerable  talk  about  theological  semi- 
naries and  the  training  of  ministers.  He  did  not 
quite  sympathize  with  the  terrific  diatribe  against 
the  divinity  schools  uttered  by  President  Hyde  of 
Bowdoin  at  the  Boston  meeting  of  the  National 


AMOEY  H.  BEADFOED  161 

Council.  But  he  did  think  that  tjiere  was  too  little 
effort  made  to  stimulate  the  students  to  think,  and 
too  little  emphasis  placed  on  the  necessity  that  the 
preacher  steep  himself  in  the  great  thought  of  the 
world.  There  was  a  tendency  in  the  seminaries  to 
neglect  personality  and  to  teach  preaching  rather 
than  to  make  big  men.  The  homiletical  end  of 
preaching,  the  delivery  of  the  message,  would  largely 
take  care  of  itself  if  the  preacher  was  a  big  man,  had 
big  thoughts  to  utter,  and  above  all  had  a  deep  and 
real  experience  of  God.  That,  after  all,  was  the 
chief  secret  of  good  preaching,  to  know  God.  If  a 
soul  was  filled  with  God  it  would  reveal  God  forcibly, 
both  in  words  and  in  life.  He  had  heard  much  preach- 
ing in  both  England  and  America  and  he  thought 
that,  on  the  whole,  it  was  of  a  very  high  order, 
and  above  all  it  was  helpful.  The  afternoon  was 
devoted  to  such  talk  as  this  and  it  was  noteworthy. 
One  of  my  outstanding  memories  of  Dr.  Bradford 
is  connected  with  the  meeting  of  the  International 
Council  of  the  Congregational  Churches  in  Edin- 
burgh. Dr.  Bradford  was  the  preacher  on  that  mem- 
orable occasion  and  the  service  was  held  in  St.  Giles' 
Cathedral  of  a  Sunday  afternoon,  through  the 
courtesy  of  the  National  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
incident  is  also  memorable  to  me  because  of 
another  incident.  I  was  staying  at  MacGregor's 
Hotel,  the  famous  hostelry  opposite  the  great 
monument  to  "Walter  Scott.  On  Sunday  after- 
noon I  went  to  luncheon  and  sitting  by  himself 
at  one  of  the  tables  was  Dr.  Woodrow  Wilson,  then 
President  of  Princeton  University.  He  invited  me 


162  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

to  sit  down  with  him.  He  was  travelling  by  bicycle 
to  the  Lake  Region,  to  Fox  How,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  where  he  was  spending  the  summer.  He 
was  going  to  St.  Giles  at  three  o'clock,  as  I  was,  to 
hear  Dr.  Bradford,  and  we  attended  the  service  to- 
gether. The  thought  of  his  becoming  President  of 
the  United  States  some  day  never  entered  my  head 
and  I  wonder  if  it  had  ever  found  lodgment  in  his 
mind.  I  doubt  if  it  had.  Together  we  listened  to 
a  great  sermon,  and  it  is  interesting  to  remember 
that  it  dealt  with  those  Christian  principles  of 
internationalism,  of  which  President  Wilson  is  the 
chief  champion  to-day.  The  great  cathedral  was 
crowded.  Not  only  were  hundreds  of  Congrega- 
tionalist  delegates  from  all  countries  there,  but 
crowds  of  Presbyterian  ministers  were  present  to 
hear  the  great  preacher.  All  the  American  tourists 
in  Edinburgh  that  Sunday  were  there.  It  was  a 
great  congregation  to  which  the  preacher  directed 
his  appeal.  How  different  the  sermon  from  those 
John  Knox  once  thundered  from  that  same  pul- 
pit. Not  a  rebuking  of  the  peoples  for  their  sins, 
but  a  passionate  appeal  to  the  nations  to  come 
up  into  that  realm  of  kindly  brotherhood  where 
Christian  people  dwelt  and  to  order  their  relation- 
ships by  those  same  principles  of  conduct  and  codes 
of  honourable,  unselfish  action,  that  obtained  among 
Christian  gentlemen  everywhere.  The  sermon  was 
a  notable  utterance  and  is  worthy  of  being  taken 
out  of  the  volume  of  proceedings  where  it  rests  and 
given  wide  reading  in  view  of  the  present  turning  of 
the  world  towards  those  ideals. 


AMOEY  H.  BEADFOED  163 

In  the  beginning  of  this  article  I  spoke  of  Dr. 
Bradford's  religious  beliefs.  One  does  not  need  to 
sum  them  up,  for  he  did  it  himself  in  the  last  year 
of  his  life.  He  published  the  summary  in  ' '  Preludes 
and  Interludes"  under  the  title  "The  Pastor's 
Creed"  and  I  will  close  this  chapter  with  those  very 
interesting  and'  significant  words : 
-  "I  believe  in  the  universe — that  all  things  and 
events  are  related  and  the  end  will  be  found  har- 
monious ;  I  believe  in  God — the  Spirit  who  pervades 
the  universe;  I  believe  in  Man — the  child  of  God 
and  possessing  His  nature;  I  believe  in  human  im- 
perfection and  guilt;  I  believe  that  the  grace  of 
God  as  it  is  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ  is  free  and  for 
all,  and  some  time  will  be  victorious ;  I  believe  in  the 
universal  Human  Brotherhood  and  in  mutual  serv- 
ice ;  I  believe  that  the  realization  of*  righteousness  in 
humanity  is  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  that  when 
'the  times  are  ripe'  it  will  include  all  the  children 
of  men;  I  believe  in  personal  Immortality;  I  be- 
lieve in  the  Bible,  in  the  Creation,  and  in  the  Spirit 
of  man,  God  has  revealed  all  the  truth  that  man 
needs  to  live  by ;  I  believe  in  the  right  and  the  duty 
of  each  person  to  decide  for  himself  as  to  what  is 
true  and,  therefore,  authoritative.  I  believe  that  true 
religion  is  the  possession  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
whom  I  gladly  confess  as  Saviour  and  Lord.  For 
the  rest  I  believe  that  all  men  live  and  more  and 
more  have  their  being  in  the  love  of  God,  that  from 
it  they  can  never  escape  and  that  at  last  it  will 
everywhere  and  forever  prevail." 


XV 

EDWARD  JUDSON 

ATTENTION  has  often  been  called  to  the  fact 
that  distinguished  men  rarely  have  dis- 
tinguished sons.  But  there  have  been  many 
striking  exceptions.  Dumas,  the  son,  was  great,  as 
was  Dumas  the  father.  Beecher,  the  son,  was  greater 
than  Beecher,  the  father.  Edward  Judson  was  a 
worthy  son  of  Adoniram.  One  was  a  prophet  of  for- 
eign missions,  the  other  was  a  prophet  of  the  new 
church  in  the  new  city.  Each  one  was  a  pioneer. 
When  Adoniram  went  to  Burmah  there  was  no 
foreign  missionary  tradition;  when  Edward  Judson 
came  to  Washington  Square,  New  York,  there  was 
no  tradition  to  be  followed  in  the  ministry  to  the 
hundreds  of  immigrants  who  had  settled  in  that  part 
of  the  city.  As  the  father  set  precedents  in  foreign 
missionary  work,  so  the  son  established  the  methods 
of  Christian  social  service  and  ministered  to  the 
masses  in  New  York. 

I  am  glad  that  Mr.  Sears  has  told  the  story  of 
Edward's  life.1  It  will  be  an  inspiration  to  every 
minister  in  the  country  who  is  grappling  with  the 
problem  of  the  down-town  church,  or  the  ministry 

*"  Edward  Judson:  Interpreter  of  God."  By  Charles  Hatch 
Sears,  M.  A.  The  Griffeth  and  Rowland  Press,  Philadelphia.  1 1. 

164 


EDWARD  JTJDSON  165 

to  foreigners.  It  was  one  of  the  bravest  lives  ever 
lived.  Not  only  did  he  give  up  comfort  and  promi- 
nent, congenial  places  for  an  ideal,  and  not  only 
did  he  cling  to  this  ideal  amidst  the  indifference  and 
actual  hostility  of  an  unawakened  denomination 
and  a  growing  financial  burden,  but,  at  least  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  when  I  came  to  know 
him  well,  he  was  battling  against  disease,  while  at 
the  same  time  worrying  over  the  financial  problems 
of  his  great  church  on  Washington  Square.  He 
was  a  real  knight,  meeting  each  great  problem  as  it 
came,  and,  having  settled  it,  moving  on  to  another; 
concealing  the  wounds  he  received,  smiling,  while 
great  disappointments  were  wearing  at  his  heart; 
never  knowing  defeat  although  some  of  his  plans 
surely  met  defeat.  How  often  have  I  seen  him 
come  into  the  room  where  was  gathered  the  little 
circle  of  ministers  which  met  every  Saturday  night, 
and  from  which  he  was  rarely  absent,  and,  although 
he  was  then  almost  distracted  over  the  effort  to  raise 
the  debts  incurred  by  the  big  institutional  church 
at  Washington  Square,  and  was  suffering  great 
agony  from  the  disease  that  soon  was  to  claim  him, 
set  the  whole  group  into  uproarious  laughter  with 
some  word  of  greeting  with  some  delicious  touch  of 
irony  in  it,  uttered  in  most  serious  tone,  with  no 
smile  on  the  face,  or  refer  in  such  irresistibly  funny 
way  to  his  own  situation,  that  one  had  to  laugh 
while  feeling  one  ought  to  weep. 

Most  of  my  readers  are  acquainted  with  his  great 
life-work;  if  they  are  not  they  will  greatly  enjoy 
Mr.  Sears'  story  of  it.  He  was  born  in  India, 


166  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

where  he  suffered  many  hardships  as  a  child,  was 
later  brought  to  the  United  States,  lost  his  mother 
at  ten,  was  taken  into  the  home  of  Rev.  Ebenezer 
Dodge,  who  afterwards  became  president  of  Colgate 
University,  where  he  was  fitted  for  college,  and  was 
graduated  from  Brown  University  in  1865.  He 
taught  for  a  while,  travelled,  and  then  became  pas- 
tor of  the  large  North  Orange  Baptist  Church.  He 
soon  became  very  popular  there.  No  one  could  help 
loving  him,  inasmuch  as  he  was  one  of  the  sweetest 
natured  men  that  ever  lived.  His  first  word  and 
his  captivating  smile  won  all  hearts,  and  as  for 
preaching,  he  could  not  speak  without  being  inter- 
esting. The  North  Orange  people  knew  they  had 
secured  a  rare  pastor  and  settled  down  to  enjoy 
him,  when  he  suddenly  sent  consternation  to  their 
hearts,  and  amazed  the  whole  country  as  well,  by 
announcing  his  intention  of  leaving  the  prosperous 
North  Orange  Church  to  undertake  the  pastorate 
of  the  Berean  Church — at  a  salary  of  only  $1,200  a 
year — located  right  in  the  heart  of  the  down-town 
region  of  New  York  City,  a  locality  rapidly  filling 
up  with  foreigners,  from  which  the  churches  were 
moving  one  by  one.  Such  a  step  would  not  cause 
the  comment  now  that  it  did  then.  There  would 
be  more  understanding  of  it.  But  at  that  time  the 
social  conscience  of  the  Church  was  not  awake. 
There  was  not  even  an  organized  charity  in  the  city. 
There  were  none  of  the  organizations  for  ameliora- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  poor.  There  was  not  even  a 
settlement,  the  first  one,  the  college  settlement,  being 
established  after  Dr.  Judson  came  to  New  York.  He 


EDWABD  JUDSON  167 

has  described  the  New  York  which  called  to  him  in 
such  striking  words  that  I  want  to  quote  them  here. 
It  is  easy  to  see  as  one  reads  them  what  challenged 
his  brave  and  sympathetic  nature : 

"Just  as  soon  as  the  island  widens  out  northward, 
business  tends  to  fringe  the  water  fronts  and  the 
main  thoroughfares,  and  it  ascends  skyward  by 
means  of  elevators,  and  there  are  left  in  the  inter- 
stices behind,  the  congested  masses  of  population, 
denser  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  People 
are  packed  together  in  tenement  houses  like  sardines 
in  a  box. 

"The  Latin  and  Celtic  races  predominate  over 
the  Saxon.  Materialistic  and  sacramentarian  no- 
tions form  the  religion  of  the  people.  Evangelical 
people  are  fleeing,  as  from  a  plague,  and  their  places 
are  rapidly  being  filled  by  families  that  are  un- 
responsive to  your  Gospel.  Day  and  night  you  are 
confronted  by  the  hideous  forms  of  pauperism, 
prostitution,  intemperance  and  crime.  You  are  like 
one  who  with  great  expense  and  pains  builds  a  li- 
brary in  a  place  where  people  have  no  taste  for 
books. 

"The  streets  swarm  with  children  like  a  rabbit- 
warren.  There  is  a  saloon  on  every  corner.  These 
people  out-vote  us  at  every  election.  We  catch  their 
diseases.  The  miasma  from  this  social  swamp  steals 
upward  and  infects  our  whole  municipal  life,  and 
our  cities  determine  the  character  and  destiny  of  our 
country.  We  must  be  either  hammer  or  anvil — 
either  subdue  these  people  with  the  Gospel  or  in  the 
end  be  assimilated  by  them. 


168  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY  ' 

"Now  these  great  masses  of  people  left  down- 
town by  the  upward  trend  of  business  and  genteel 
residences,  and  composed  largely  of  foreign  elements 
dominated  by  materialistic  or  sacramentarian  no- 
tions, constitute  at  our  very  doors  a  mission  field 
of  unparallelled  richness  and  promise.  But,  like  all 
rich  mission  fields,  it  is  hard  to  work,  and,  if  neg- 
lected, becomes  a  menace.  We  have  a  new  and 
very  dangerous  phase  of  social  alienation.  The 
tendency  is  for  the  intelligent,  well-to-do,  and 
churchgoing  people  to  withdraw  little  by  little  from 
this  part  of  the  city." 

This,  he  said,  is  the  impression  which  the  flight 
of  churches  makes  on  working  men : 

"An  untutored  working  woman  or  man  who  toils 
hard  and  long  for  what  will  buy  but  little  of  life's 
needs,  who  has  seen  congregation  after  congregation 
leave  the  lower  districts  of  our  city  because  fashion 
is  retreating  northward  before  the  advance  of  busi- 
ness and  it  is  not  considered  pleasant  or  in  the  best 
form  to  maintain  a  church  in  a  region  whose  private 
houses  are  being  gradually  transformed  into  tene- 
ments— any  hard-pressed  wage-worker  not  blessed 
with  strong  faith  in  God,  who  has  seen  Christianity 
moving  out  of  his  neighbourhood  into  the  precincts 
of  wealth,  and  the  churches  dying  as  it  were  before 
his  eyes,  is  apt  to  feel  somehow  as  if  Christianity 
were  deserting  him,  as  if,  because  there  is  a  deep 
snowdrift  in  front  of  my  door,  I  should  infer  that 
there  is  deep  snow  all  over  the  plain.  His  belief  in 
a  good  God,  in  a  providing  Father  seems  to  weaken, 
and  we  must  not  be  surprised  that  doubt,  at  last, 


ED  WARD  JUDSON  169 

supplants  faith  and  atheism  grows.  So  come  despair 
and  hopelessness,  carelessness  and  improvidence. 
There  is  no  foundation  for  character  but  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Christian  religion.  This  character  which 
alone  can  bear  comfort  must  be  built  up  by  the 
Church." 

He  characterized  thus  the  tendency  of  the  Church : 
"We  are  like  a  working  man  who  uses  his  strong- 
est tools  where  there  is  the  easiest  work  to  do,  or  a 
general  who  turns  his  heaviest  guns  upon  the  weakest 
point  in  the  enemy 's  line,  or  a  physician  who  injects 
his  medicine  into  the  least  diseased  portions  of  his 
patient's  body.  We  make  a  mistake  of  huddling  our 
best  preachers  and  our  most  amply  equipped 
churches  in  that  part  of  the  city  where  they  are  least 
needed,  and  where  refining  influences  are  most 
abundant;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  just  where  the 
population  is  densest  and  materialism  most  strongly 
intrenched,  we  bring  to  bear  our  weakest  and  poorest 
appliances.  It  is  as  though  during  a  cold  night  one 
should  unconsciously  gather  the  bedclothes  up 
around  one's  neck,  leaving  the  extremities  stark  and 
chill." 

"It  is  not  strange  that  many  good  people  are  shy 
of  church  institutionalism.  They  say  that  what  we 
want  is  'the  simple  Gospel,'  and,  if  Christ  be  lifted 
up,  He  will  draw  all  men  to  Him.  But  the  difficulty 
is  to  bring  men  within  reach  of  the  Gospel.  How 
shall  they  believe  in  Him  of  whom  they  have  not 
heard  ?  The  preacher  is  often  like  one  who  rings  a 
silver  bell  in  a  vacuum.  What  is  the  use  of  trans- 
muting the  Gospel  into  atmospheric  vibrations,  if 


170  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

there  are  no  ears  within  the  reach  of  these  vibra- 
tions? Church  institutionalism  is  nothing  more 
than  systematic,  organized  kindness,  which  concili- 
ates the  hostile  and  indifferent,  alluring  them  within 
reach,  and  softening  their  hearts  for  the  reception  of 
the  world  of  life.  It  can  never  take  the  place  of  the 
Gospel.  All  the  old,  tried  methods  must  be  con- 
served— well-thought-out  and  inspiring  sermons, 
attractive  prayer  meetings  and  Sunday  school,  faith- 
ful and  painstaking  pastoral  visitation.  The  worst- 
off  need  the  best  we  have  of  preaching,  music,  archi- 
tecture— all  the  rest,  not  cold  victuals  and  a  servants' 
dining-room — a  church,  not  a  mission.  My  own  rule 
is  to  preach  twice  a  Sunday,  attend  my  Sunday 
school,  conduct  my  weekly  prayer  meetings,  and 
make  fifty  calls  a  week." 

His  thought  was  not  to  establish  a  mission,  but 
that  the  Church  should  take  up  its  mission.  He 
says: 

"Rescue  missions,  gospel  halls,  and  the  like  are 
only  feeble  and  hectic  substitutes  for  vigorous 
church  organizations.  The  Church  should  have  its 
missions  in  a  social  swamp,  and  begin  by  being  itself 
a  mission. ' ' 

His  hope  was  in  the  ministry  of  the  local  church, 
not  in  the  service  of  Christian  people  through  other 
organizations.  He  never  became  wholly  reconciled 
to  the  state  taking  over  the  work  of  charity.  He 
thought  it  should  be  administered  by  the  Church. 

"In  my  opinion  this  definite  social  organism,  the 
local  church,  a  group  of  Christians  who  meet  habit- 
ually in  one  place  for  worship,  the  preaching  of  the 


EDWAED  JUDSON  171 

Word,  and  the  celebration  of  the  sacraments,  con- 
tains  the  potency  for  the  cure  of  all  the  ills  that 
flesh  is  heir  to.  Here  lies  the  solution  to  every  social 
problem.  Let  no  other  society  displace  in  our  con- 
sciousness the  local  church. ' ' 

Here  are  the  words  he  used  as  he  addressed  him- 
self to  this  great  task:  "I  have  heard  the  sound 
of  the  going  in  the  tops  of  the  mulberry  trees,  and 
I  have  tried  to  bestir  myself  for  the  battle.  I  be- 
lieve there  is  before  me  an  invisible  guide,  and  I 
propose  to  follow  him.  I  do  not  dream  of  such -a 
thing  as  want  of  real  success.  There  is  not  a  spot 
on  Manhattan  Island  so  favourably  located  as  this 
for  a  church.  I  have  studied  this  island  carefully. 
The  blessing  is  to  come." 

When  Dr.  Judson  came  to  New  York  it  was  as 
pastor  of  a  rather  weak  organization,  practically  a 
mission  church.  He  had  not  been  pastor  of  this 
Berean  Baptist  Church  long  before  he  began  to  real- 
ize its  utter  incapacity  to  carry  out  his  ideals.  He 
did  the  best  he  could,  establishing  various  classes  and 
clubs  for  the  children  and  the  young  people,  but 
very  soon  the  vision  of  a  great,  splendidly  equipped, 
institutional  church  began  to  assume  shape  in  his 
mind.  Once,  as  he  was  showing  me  through  the 
Judson  Memorial  Church,  he  told  me  the  whole 
story.  He  said  that  he  had  not  been  pastor  of  the 
Berean  Church  six  months  before  he  began  to  realize 
that,  to  win  the  foreign  population  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, something  more  than  the  usual  church  services 
must  be  offered  to  the  people.  The  Church  must  win 
their  affection  first  by  a  love  expressed  through 


172  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

social  and  even  material  agencies  before  it  could 
bring  them  in  reach  of  the  Gospel.  The  Berean 
Church  was  not  built  for  such  ministrations.  He 
immediately  began  to  dream  of  a  church  adapted  to 
meet  every  need  of  the  crowded  neighbourhood  in 
which  he  was  working.  He  felt  that  the  one  site 
for  it  was  facing  beautiful  Washington  Square, 
north  of  which  lived  the  wealthy,  south  of  which 
lived  thousands  of  French  and  Italian  immigrants. 
Then  it  came  to  him  as  an  inspiration  that  he  make 
this  church  a  memorial  to  his  great  father,  Adoniram 
Judson, — for  had  he  not  devoted  his  life  to  the 
masses?  There  was  not  enough  money  to  be  had  in 
the  locality,  perhaps  not  even  in  New  York,  where- 
with to  build  the  splendid  structure  he  desired.  It 
occurred  to  him  to  appeal  to  the  nation  for  the 
$400,000  he  needed  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  dream. 
He  felt  very  strongly  that  the  end  of  all  social  and 
bodily  ministry  must  be  the  adoption  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  and  that  all  the  various  institutions  must 
be  made  to  lead  to  worship  in  the  Church.  To  quote 
his  own  words:  "An  institutional  church,  then,  is  an 
organized  body  of  Christian  believers,  who,  finding 
themselves  in  a  hard  and  uncongenial  environment, 
supplement  the  ordinary  methods  of  the  Gospel — 
such  as  preaching,  prayer  meetings,  Sunday  school, 
and  pastoral  visitation — by  a  system  of  organized 
kindness,  a  congeries  of  institutions,  which  by  touch- 
ing people  on  physical,  social  and  intellectual  sides, 
will  conciliate  them  and  draw  them  within  reach  of 
the  Gospel.'*  In  those  last  words  one  has  Dr.  Jud- 
son's  chief  concern.  Consequently  when  the  money 


EDWARD  JUDSON  173 

was  in  hand  for  the  Memorial,  he  insisted  that  not 
only  should  the  institutional  features  be  complete, 
but  the  church  edifice  should  be  beautiful.  It  is 
beautiful,  as  worshipful  as  the  churches  to  which  the 
Italian  was  accustomed  in  his  native  land.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  three  greatest  artists  in  America 
cooperated  in  making  it  beautiful — Stanford  White, 
the  architect;  St.  Gaudens,  the  sculptor;  and  La 
Farge,  the  painter.  Dr.  Judson  said  to  me  that  he 
supposed  there  was  not  a  happier  man  in  America 
than  he  was  on  the  day  when  that  church  was  dedi- 
cated. He  had  put  seven  of  the  best  years  of  his  life 
into  working  for  it — and  there  it  stood.  To  its  many 
classes,  clubs,  socials  and  the  daily  services  inau- 
gurated, as  well  as  to  the  Sunday  services,  the  people 
came  in  increasing  numbers.  On  that  day — so  he  him- 
self told  me — he  was  glad  he  had  refused  the  many 
tempting  offers  that  had  come  to  him  to  go  to  easier 
and  more  highly  paid  fields  of  work.  (It  was  gener- 
ally understood  that  he  had  been  offered  the  presi- 
dencies of  Brown  University,  and  of  Colgate  Uni- 
versity, the  chair  of  homiletics  in  Chicago  Divinity 
School  and  other  similar  positions.)  To  this  great 
work  he  re-dedicated  his  life  as  the  splendid  temple 
he  had  reared  was  dedicated. 

But  the  cost  of  operation  was  very  great,  and  it 
was  not  so  easy  to  obtain  money  year  by  year  for 
that  as  for  the  original  fund.  I  have  seen  him  come 
into  the  Philothean  meeting  again  and  again  tired 
and  weary  from  the  endless  worry  about  money. 
It  was  another  case  of  a  great  man's  powers  being 
taken  from  the  work  he  could  do  at  Washington 


174  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

Square  in  the  ministry  to  people,  by  the  endless  en- 
deavour to  raise  funds.  But  he  never  showed  the  dis- 
couragement he  felt.  He  was  the  life  of  the  little 
gatherings  when,  after  the  paper  and  discussion,  the 
dozen  men  sat  down  to  dinner.  If  any  one  referred 
to  the  burden  he  was  carrying  he  would  respond, 
while  his  eyes  twinkled,  with  some  such  sudden  re- 
mark as  this:  "Don't  you  know  that  money  raising 
gives  a  minister  the  greatest  opportunities  in  the 
world?  Why,  I  converted  one  of  the  richest  Baptists 
in  the  city  right  in  his  office  the  other  day."  "How 
do  you  know  you  converted  him?"  one  of  the  breth- 
ren would  ask.  "Know?  Why,  when  I  came  out 
one  of  his  clerks  said,  'Did  he  give  you  anything?' 
'Yes,  twenty-five  dollars.'  The  clerk  put  his  pen 
down  and  said  solemnly,  'You  must  have  giv'n  him 
religion.  It's  the  first  time  a  living  soul  ever  got 
a  dollar  out  of  him.'  "  But  the  strain  told  on  him 
and  in  1914  he  died  of  heart  failure,  which  attacked 
him  while  he  was  speaking  at  a  little  gathering  of 
clergymen  to  which  he  belonged,  Sigma  Chi.  It  has 
always  been  a  rather  striking  and  happy  remem- 
brance that  he  was  smitten  just  as  he  ended  these 
familiar  lines,  which  he  often  quoted: 

"  The  angel  wrote,  and  vanished.     The  next  night 
He  came  again  with  a  great  wakening  light, 
And  showed  the  names  whom  love  of  God  had 

blessed, 
And  lo,  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest." 

But  he  was  made  very  happy  just  a  little  while  be- 
fore he  died.    Nineteen  hundred  and  thirteen  was 


EDWAED  JUDSON  175 

the  centennial  year  of  the  beginning  of  his  father's 
great  work  in  India.  There  was  to  be  a  great  cele- 
bration in  Burmah.  It  occurred  to  Edward's  many 
admirers  in  New  York  to  give  a  testimonial  dinner  to 
him  at  the  same  hour  the  memorial  service  for  his 
father  was  being  held  in  Burmah.  It  took  the  form 
of  a  banquet  at  Sherry's.  A  large  company  graced 
the  occasion  and  Bishop  Greer,  Dr.  Charles  E.  Jeffer- 
son, Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Dr.  George  U.  Wenner  and 
Dr.  Prank  Mason  North  spoke  for  other  denominations 
than  the  Baptist,  while  Dr.  Cornelius  WoelfMn  pre- 
sided. Everybody  was  very  happy,  Dr.  Judson  most 
of  all.  How  sweetly  and  modestly  he  brushed  aside 
all  the  fine  things  that  had  been  said  of  him  when  he 
arose  to  speak!  I  sat  near  him  at  the  guest-table 
and  was  very  glad.  For  some  of  us  knew  that  his 
stay  might  not  beJLong.  Perhaps  no  man_who  has 
ministered  in  New  York  in  recent  years  was  more 
loved  than  he.  I  recall  hardly  any  one  who  lived  the 
Christ  life  in  the  modern  city  in  the  modern  times 
more  fully  than  did  he.  I  have  heard  others  say 
the  same. 


XVI 

CHARLES  SILVESTER  HORNE 

ABOUT  thirty  years  ago  a  young  man  came 
down  from  Glasgow  University  and  entered 
Mansfield  College,  Oxford.  Principal  Fair- 
bairn  was  then  the  head  of  this  famous  divinity 
school,  and  his  attention  was  very  quickly  turned  to 
this  eager  English  lad — for  he  was  English,  although 
he  had  studied  in  Scotland — and  a  warm  affection 
and  an  unusual  intimacy  sprang  up  between  master 
and  pupil.  The  boy's  name  was  Silvester  Home. 
He  manifested  an  unbounded  enthusiasm  for  thought 
and  life,  an  eager  passion  for  work,  and  an  alert- 
ness of  mind  that  singled  him  out  in  the  college  as- 
sembly. When  the  time  of  his  graduation  came  he 
was  already  showing  signs  of  marked  ability  as  a 
preacher,  and  he  was  called  to  the  prominent  Ken- 
sington Congregational  Church,  London.  This 
church  was  situated  among  fashionable  people  who 
were  soon  drawn  to  the  building  by  the  eloquence 
and  passion  of  the  preacher  and  they  remained,  so 
that  before  long  he  had  a  large  and  successful 
church — a  church  which  offered  him  few  problems, 
but  inspired  him  to  do  well  that  which  he  loved  to 
do,  preach  with  earnestness  and  devotion  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

176 


CHAELES  SILVESTER  HOENE          177 

His  friends  all  thought  of  him  as  settled  here  for 
a  long  term  of  years, — unless,  perchance,  some  uni- 
versity offered  him  a  chair — where  he  would  grow 
in  preaching  power,  and  perhaps  write  books  in 
leisure  hours.  Suddenly  he  astonished  all  England. 
There  was  a  great  and  almost  deserted  edifice  in 
Holborn,  London,  called  Whitefield's  Tabernacle.  It 
had  been  a  great  institution  in  previous  days,  but  the 
families  which  once  supported  its  worship  had  all 
moved  away.  It  was  left  to  bear  empty  witness  of 
former  glories  to  a  population  of  boarders,  working 
men  and  artisans  to  whom  the  church  was  of  little 
concern,  while  all  about  it  were  saloons  and  shows 
of  rather  low  type.  The  Tabernacle  was  without  a 
pastor,  the  community  was  without  a  leader  who 
could  see  the  great  social  implications  of  the  Gospel 
and  apply  them.  It  offered  no  salary  to  speak  of, 
and  seemed  to  present  no  opportunity  to  the 
preacher.  By  some  chance  Mr.  Home  learned  of  the 
situation  and  it  challenged  him.  Here  were  these 
thousands  of  working  men,  these  streets  full  of  young 
men  and  women,  these  unshepherded  boys  and  girls 
— and  they  called  to  him.  The  call  was  so  strong 
that  he  could  not  escape  it,  and,  one  day,  to  the 
astonishment  of  his  many  friends,  he  announced  that 
he  was  going  to  leave  Kensington  and  attack  the 
problem  of  Whitefield's  Tabernacle. 

My  readers  know  the  story  of  his  remarkable  suc- 
cess in  that  brave  undertaking.  He  made  White- 
field's  one  of  the  most  powerful  religious  and  social 
centers  in  London.  All  sorts  of  organizations  came 
into  being  as  the  church  itself  grew  in  power  and 


178  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

influence.  Influential  laymen  became  interested  in 
it  and  went  over  and  threw  in  their  lot  with  it.  Sir 
William  Randal  Cremer  was  only  one  out  of  the 
parliamentary  group  who  were  attracted  by  this 
young  man  and  his  gospel.  The  men's  meetings, 
especially,  became  famous,  and  great  crowds  flocked 
to  Whitefield's  on  Sunday  afternoons.  Great 
changes  began  to  be  apparent  in  the  community 
about  the  chapel,  and  Mr.  Home  gradually  became 
the  man  to  whom  everybody  in  trouble  turned.  He 
fought  saloon  and  brothel  and  entered  seriously  into 
the  problem  of  the  labouring  man.  It  was  this  con- 
tact with  the  city's  life  that  led  him  to  stand  for 
Parliament,  to  which  he  was  elected  in  1910.  Mean- 
time he  was  in  constant  demand  all  over  Great 
Britain  as  a  platform  speaker,  had  been  made  chair- 
man of  the  Congregational  Union  of  England  and 
Wales,  and  was  president  of  the  National  Brother- 
hood, when  he  was  suddenly  called  away — dying,  as 
did  his  famous  compatriot,  Ian  Maclaren,  while  on  a 
lecture  tour  in  America.  He  was  only  forty-nine 
when  he  died,  but  he  had  made  a  lasting  impression 
on  England  and  America. 

I  first  met  Silvester  Home  at  the  funeral  of  Sir 
William  Eandal  Cremer  in  Whitefield  's  on  the  open- 
ing day  of  the  International  Peace  Congress  which 
was  held  in  London  in  1908.  Cremer  was  a  very 
wonderful  man.  He  was  a  carriage  painter.  A 
great  strike  occurred  and  as  time  passed  the  feeling 
between  employers  and  employees  became  more  and 
more  bitter.  Soon  Cremer  was  recognized  as  the 
leader  of  the  working  men.  It  finally  occurred  to 


CHAELES  SILVESTEE  HORNE          179 

liim  that  there  could  be  no  just  settlement  of  the 
grievances  except  by  arbitration.  He  set  to  work  to 
bring  this  about.  He  was  successful  in  his  efforts 
and  finally  the  trouble  was  arbitrated  to  everybody's 
satisfaction.  He  was  then  sent  to  Parliament,  where 
he  became  the  spokesman  of  the  labour  interests  of 
England.  He  believed  in  arbitration  of  labour  dis- 
putes and  brought  about  many  adjustments  of  labour 
troubles  in  this  way.  He  was  a  little,  quiet,  modest 
man,  not  a  great  public  speaker,  but  one  who  brought 
great  things  to  pass  by  personal  influence  upon  all 
kinds  of  men.  In  course  of  time  the  thought  took 
possession  of  him  that  if  labour  disputes  could  be  so 
satisfactorily  adjusted  by  arbitration  there  was  no 
reason  why  disputes  between  nations  could  not  be 
settled  in  the  same  way.  Prom  that  day  forth  he 
became  an  eager  advocate  of  international  arbitra- 
tion. He  conceived  the  idea  of  bringing  together 
members  of  the  various  parliaments  of  the  world  in 
a  convention,  to  discuss  this  question.  The  meeting 
was  finally  held  in  Paris  and  out  of  it  grew  The  In- 
terparliamentary Union,  an  organization  that  voiced 
the  growing  sentiments  of  the  people  in  Europe, 
sentiments  which  were  rapidly  moving  towards  this 
ideal  until  a  few  war-lords,  who  believed  neither  in 
the  people  nor  in  peace,  set  back  the  consummation 
of  their  ideal,  by  plunging  Europe  into  this  cruel, 
unnecessary  and  futile  war.  His  story  has  been  told 
in  an  interesting  biography  and  is  one  of  the  ro- 
mances of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  funeral  was  a  notable  event.    The  Peace  Con- 
gress had  brought  eminent  men  from  all  the  world 


180  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

to  London  and  they  attended  the  funeral  en  masse 
to  do  honour  to  this  great  man.  After  the  funeral  I 
spoke  to  Mr.  Home,  with  whom  I  had  had  corre- 
spondence. He  invited  me  to  lunch  with  him  and 
we  went  out  to  a  little  restaurant  near  the  church. 
We  had  two  hours  together.  I  asked  him  many 
questions  about  his  work  and  he  talked  freely.  He 
dwelt  at  length  upon  the  success  of  the  "Brother- 
hood Movement"  in  England.  It  came  about  with 
the  awakening  of  the  Church  to  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tianity had  something  to  say  about  the  great  evil  of 
poverty  other  than  simply  "to  be  charitable  to  the 
poor";  something  about  vice  other  than  simply  "to 
be  pure";  something  about  the  liquor  evil  other  than 
"to  be  temperate";  something  about  the  great  in- 
dustrial situation  other  than  "to  be  content  with 
one's  work  and  to  save  money" ;  and  something  about 
war  other  than  "  to  be  a  Christian  soldier. ' '  When 
the  Church  began  to  insist  on  social  justice  rather 
than  on  charity;  on  removing  the  conditions  that 
pandered  to  vice  rather  than  on  the  simple  resistance 
of  temptations  that  flaunted  themselves  unchecked 
in  the  face  of  youth ;  on  the  banishment  of  the  saloon 
rather  than  on  personal  abstinence  alone;  on  a  new 
industrial  order  rather  than  on  fruitless  struggle 
with  the  iniquitous  system ;  and  on  Christian  methods 
of  settling  international  disputes  rather  than  on 
Christian  conduct  during  the  accepted  evils  of  war — 
then  men  turned  to  the  Church,  became  interested 
and  valiant  workers  within  it  and  felt  Christianity 
to  be  a  vital  thing  which  touched  every  point  of 
their  lives.  The  remarkable  growth  of  the  Broth- 


CHAELES  SILVESTEB  HOENB          181 

erhood  movement  and  the  success  of  the  men's 
meetings  at  Whitefield's  were  striking  evidences  of 
this. 

The  fact  that  we  had  just  come  from  Cremer's 
funeral  naturally  turned  our  conversation  to  the 
problem  to  the  solution  of  which  Cremer  had  de- 
voted his  life.  Mr.  Home  believed  that  the  Christian 
Church  would  quickly  rid  the  world  of  wars  if  it 
could  only  grasp  and  teach  the  fundamental  truth 
of  Jesus'  teaching,  that  brotherhood  was  between 
peoples  as  well  as  between  people.  He  said  to  me 
in  substance  what  I  afterwards  heard  him  say  at 
Yale  University: 

"Nobody  can  calculate  the  effect  on  the  life  of  this 
world,  if  every  minister  of  Christ  were  to  know  him- 
self charged  with  full  authority  as  an  ambassador  of 
peace,  and  were  to  make  it  a  definite  part  of  his 
mission  to  plead  the  cause  of  brotherhood  with  all 
other  peoples.  No  governments  could  resist  such 
concerted  appeal.  The  Church  of  Christ  can,  if 
she  will,  make  the  Hague  Tribunal  the  center  of  the 
world's  hopes.  In  my  honest  judgment,  unless  the 
Church  brings  this  era  of  militarism  to  a  close,  and 
exorcises  the  demons  of  hatred,  suspicion  and  aggres- 
sion, there  is  no  power  that  can.  And  it  is  but 
obedience  to  marching  orders,  after  all.  I  want  to 
appeal  to  you  to  include  this  definitely  in  your  mili- 
tary accoutrement — this  fighting  faith  in  a  world 
subject  to  reason  and  justice  because  Christ  ruled. 
I  ask  you  to  believe  that  no  ideal  of  organized  peace 
is  too  extravagant  or  ambitious  to  stand  within  your 
horizon." 


182  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

One  thing  he  said  I  have  recalled  many  times  since 
that  day.  It  was  that  many  and  many  churches 
which  were  failing  to  reach  the  masses  of  the  people 
would  become  great  influences  if  the  pastor  would 
simply  become  one  with  the  community,  become  the 
friend  of  every  man  and  family  in  the  parish,  and, 
above  all,  would  show  the  people  that  Christianity 
stood  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  life  of  man.  He 
referred  several  times  to  the  surprise  that  came  over 
the  community  about  Whitefield's  when  the  church 
began  to  clean  up  the  neighbourhood  and  to  cham- 
pion the  rights  of  the  people  against  the  exploiter 
and  oppressor  of  every  sort.  It  was  an  exceedingly 
interesting  two  hours. 

I  did  not  meet  Mr.  Home  again  until  he  came  to 
America  in  1912.  While  Mr.  Home  was  in  New 
York  Dr.  Walter  Laidlaw,  Secretary  of  the  New 
York  City  Federation  of  Churches,  who  has  done 
more  than  any  one  else  I  know  to  bring  American 
preachers  face  to  face  with  distinguished  visitors 
from  abroad,  arranged  a  luncheon  for  Mr.  Home 
and  the  pastors  of  greater  New  York  at  the  National 
Arts  Club,  on  September  6,  1912.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  interesting  occasions  in  the  religious  life  of 
the  city.  Scarcely  any  address  I  have  heard  has 
moved  the  hearers  more  deeply.  It  was  bold,  vigor- 
ous, and  every  word  was  full  of  challenge.  I  wish 
there  were  space  to  print  all  of  it  here.  That  cannot 
be,  but  certain  passages  which  were  long  talked  of  in 
New  York  might  well  receive  careful  study  again 
to-day: 

"After  all,  is  not  the  hope  of  the  world  in  the 


CHAELES  SILVESTEE  HOBNE          183 

great  democracies  ?  When  we  can  get  to  terms  with 
the  great  German  people  as  we  can  get  to  terms  with 
the  French  democracy,  I  believe  universal  peace  and 
progress  will  be  a  great  deal  nearer  than  they  are." 

******* 
"Nobody,  I  think,  can  look  carefully  at  the  state 
of  things  of  our  time  without  seeing  a  tendency  in 
the  great  masses  of  our  people  to  pass  the  Church 
by  as  an  instrument  that  was  once  the  greatest  power 
in  the  world,  but  of  which  to-day  they  do  not  see  the 
use.  They  have  no  marked  antipathy  to  the  Church, 
but  it  is  far  worse  that  they  ignore  it.  When  I  was 
chairman  of  our  Congregational  Churches  in  London, 
it  was  my  duty  to  visit  these  churches.  I  went  down 
systematically,  early,  and  walked  through  the  streets, 
and  asked  the  people  of  each  locality,  and  especially 
the  policemen,  where  the  Congregational  Church  was. 
In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  they  did  not  know.  If  I 
asked  them  where  a  certain  public  house  was  they 
would  know  at  once.  They  knew  every  public  house 
in  the  place.  They  had  taken  account  of  them,  but 
equally  they  did  not  feel  that  our  churches  were 
centers  of  the  spiritual,  moral  and  social  force  with 
which  every  neighbourhood  had  to  reckon.  I  do  not 
believe  the  Church  of  Christ  is  doing  its  business  in 
the  world  until  people  know  where  it  lives.  The  last 
vice  of  Christianity  is  insignificance.  The  Christian 
people  are  the  nicest  and  best  people  in  the  world, 
but  sometimes  they  don't  count.  That  is  their 
trouble.  I  sometimes  suggest  to  my  brethren  that 
they  ought  to  speak  on  two  texts.  One  is,  'Ye  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth,'  and  the  other  is  'Have  faith 


184  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,' — salt  and  mustard. 
The  ordinary  person  does  not  think  of  the  Christian 
as  having  much  salt  or  mustard  about  him." 

******* 
"I  have  sometimes  said  I  believe  I  am  the  only 
Calvinist  left.  I  believe  the  least  important  thing 
about  Calvin  was  his  doctrine.  The  only  thing  im- 
portant about  Calvin  was  the  way  he  ruled  Geneva. 
He  believed  the  Church  was  there  to  make  a  city, 
and  to  make  a  good  city,  and  he  might  make  endless 
mistakes,  but  he  was  going  to  make  a  city,  and  he 
was  big  enough  to  do  it.  I  have  occasionally  thrown 
a  stone  at  his  teaching  myself.  I  never  lost  an  op- 
portunity of  teaching  Dr.  Fairbairn  what  theology 
I  could.  Despite  that  reference,  I  must  admit  my 
theology  never  exactly  warranted  throwing  stones  at 
any  one 's  else.  I  am  certain,  in  his  outlook  upon  life, 
Calvin  made  every  mistake,  but  he  is  better  in  that 
respect  than  any  one  who  never  did  anything. 
Though  we  are  Protestants  here,  I  confess  my  belief 
that  the  old  splendid,  imperial  idea  of  the  Church 
of  Borne  was  right,  absolutely  right.  In  my  judg- 
ment, in  the  carrying  out  of  that  ideal  she  made 
every  mistake.  She  consecrated  to  her  campaign 
methods  of  fraud  and  falsity,  and  yet  the  same  idea, 
that  glorious  ideal,  that  Christ  was  to  rule  the  world, 
that  there  was  no  department  of  life,  manners  and 
morals  that  was  to  be  outside  the  sweep  and  sway 
of  the  scepter  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — that  was 
an  absolutely  right  conception.  I  do  not  know  why 
we  have  drifted  away  from  that,  but  I  have  my  con- 
viction that  we  have  got  to  get  back  to  it." 


CHAELES  SILVESTEE  HOENE          186 

******* 

"The  only  difference  between  a  groove  and  a  grave 
is  a  matter  of  depth,  and  we  are  wearing  our  grooves 
so  deep  they  are  becoming  our  graves.  How  we 
hesitate  to  step  out  into  the  immediate  arena,  and 
make  our  appeal  to  masses  of  people,  to  say  the  per- 
fectly sincere,  strong  word  to  our  followers. ' ' 
******* 

"After  all  the  Church  of  to-morrow  has  got  to  be 
a  universal  Church  with  a  universal  nature.  You 
cannot  give  a  racial  or  national  nature  to  the  Church 
of  Christ.  It  has  got  to  be  universal  and  inter- 
national. The  Church  of  to-morrow  is  going  to  over- 
leap all  these  narrow  bounds.  At  this  moment  the 
Church  of  Christ  has  got  the  key  to  the  situation  in 
her  own  hands  if  she  has  the  faith  to  use  it." 

In  1914  Mr.  Home  delivered  the  Lyman  Beecher 
Lectures  on  Preaching  at  Yale  University.  The 
eight  lectures  were  heard  by  large  audiences  and  Mr. 
Home  himself  won  everybody's  heart.  It  is  not 
an  easy  matter  to  say  anything  new  about  preaching 
when  forty  or  fifty  of  the  leading  preachers  of  the 
world  have  been  talking  on  the  same  subject  year 
after  year.  But  Mr.  Home's  lectures  were  as  orig- 
inal and  new  as  they  might  have  been  had  not 
Beecher  and  all  the  others  spoken  before  him.  They 
dwelt  upon  "The  Eomance  of  Preaching,"1  and 
those  who  heard  them  came  away  with  a  more  exalted 
feeling  of  the  preacher's  office  than  they  had  ever 

1  They  are  published  by  the  Revell  Company,  of  New  York, 
under  that  title. 


186  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

dared  cherish  before.  The  lecturer  spoke  first  upon 
the  preacher  as  the  permanent  organ  of  God's  voice, 
whose  office  seems  part  of  the  scheme  of  God,  who 
has  been  glorious  in  age  after  age,  and  who,  as  the 
servant  of  the  Spirit  and  one  commissioned  by 
Christ  to  represent  Him  in  the  earth,  holds  highest 
place  in  the  changing  civilizations — civilizations  that 
have  grown  because  He  has  spoken.  In  six  lectures 
he  then  illustrated  the  preacher's  power  in  history 
by  portraying  the  work  of  the  Old  Testament 
Prophets,  the  first  apostles,  then  Athanasius,  Chrys- 
ostom,  Savonarola,  Calvin,  John  Knox,  John  Robin- 
son, Wesley  and  Whitefield,  closing  the  course  with 
a  striking  lecture  on  "The  Romance  of  Modern 
Preaching."  Not  only  did  he  make  these  men  live, 
but  he  showed  how  each  one  illustrated  some  special 
function  of  the  preacher's  office.  The  total  effect 
was  to  magnify  the  preacher's  possibilities  to  the 
highest  and  to  make  the  students  and  preachers  who 
listened  to  the  lectures  proud  that  they  were  in  the 
great  succession.  Mr.  Home  was  at  his  best  in  these 
lectures,  two  of  which  I  was  fortunate  enough  to 
hear,  going  up  from  New  York  purposely  to  be 
present.  He  was  passionate  in  delivery,  the  great 
subject  having  seemingly  completely  possessed  him 
and  the  sympathetic  audience  having  apparently 
stirred  him  to  unusual  eloquence.  The  students 
were  greatly  charmed  with  him,  and  I  do  not  know 
of  any  lecturer  whom  I  have  heard  in  this  course 
who  made  them  feel  more  thoroughly  the  greatness 
of  the  opportunities  that  lay  before  them.  One 
thing  about  these  lectures  impressed  every  one— » 


CHAELES  SILVESTEE  HOENE          187 

the  wealth  of  literary  allusion.  It  was  not  that  Mr. 
Home's  lectures  were  besprinkled  with  quotations, 
as  is  the  case  in  Canon  Farrar's  sermons,  but  that 
he  brought  authorities  from  every  realm — literature, 
art,  poetry,  science,  history,  theology  and  politics  to 
support  and  enforce  what  he  was  saying.  It  gave 
not  only  authority,  but  richness  and  charm  to  all  he 
said.  It  also  impressed  upon  the  students  the  value 
of  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  great  books  of  the  world 
to  the  preacher.  Let  me  close  this  chapter  with  some 
words  uttered  by  Mr.  Home  in  his  last  lecture, 
which  came  back  to  me  with  special  force  two  or 
three  days  afterwards,  as  being  the  last  words  he 
ever  uttered  in  public — he  died  on  his  way  from 
Yale  to  Toronto  where  he  was  to  preach  to  the 
Canadian  students — about  as  fine  a  challenge  to  the 
young  minister  of  to-day  as  one  can  anywhere  find : 
"I  have  done.  It  remains  only  for  me  to  con- 
gratulate you  on  your  birthright.  You  are  born  to 
an  inheritance  in  a  great  and  splendid  age.  All  the 
Christian  centuries  offer  you  their  hoarded  wealth. 
For  you  every  prophet  has  prophesied  until  now; 
for  you  the  martyrs  suffered,  and  the  saints  glorified 
God  in  shining  lives  of  holy  love  and  service.  For 
you  the  poets  have  sung,  and  at  your  feet  every  one 
of  the  world-thinkers  has  laid  the  harvest  of  his 
brain.  For  the  last  hundred  years  science  has  been 
weaving  its  wizard  spells  about  this  earth,  and  draw- 
ing us  all  nearer  together,  so  that  we  may  contribute 
what  is  best  in  our  life  to  the  common  stock  of  the 
world's  wealth.  Into  this  magnificent  heritage  you 
have  been  born;  and  into  the  full  possession  of  it 


THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY" 

you  are  about  to  enter.  My  advice  to  you  is,  in  a; 
word,  'Belong  to  your  century.'  'Hold  fast  that 
which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  To 
be  alive  here  and  now,  with  the  call  of  God  in  your 
souls,  and  the  widening  opportunities  of  to-day  at 
your  doors,  is  indeed  to  have  been  crowned  by 
Heaven.  Let  no  man  discrown  you.  Do  not  live  in 
the  past.  Do  not  let  the  glamour  of  days  and  events 
gone  by  seduce  you  from  your  loyalty  to  the  present 
hour.  Whatever  faults  may  be  chargeable  to  our 
century,  it  is  the  best  century  for  you  and  me.  That 
is  why  I  appeal  to  you  with  all  affection  and  solem- 
nity. 'To-day,  oh,  that  ye  would  hear  his  voice!' 
The  voice  of  God  in  the  life  of  to-day!" 


xvn 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

SUEELY  Booker  T.  Washington  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  America  has  produced. 
Born  in  a  slave 's  hut,  at  an  early  age  he  learned 
to  read,  and  the  first  book  did  for  him  what  it  has 
done  for  many  others,  filled  him  with  unrest.  He 
evinced  a  passion  for  knowledge.  The  story  of  how  he 
walked  the  long  distance  to  Hampton  Institute  (told 
in  ' '  Up  from  Slavery, ' '  one  of  the  most  readable  of 
modern  autobiographies) ,  sleeping  under  board- 
walks; how  he  presented  himself  at  the  school  with 
no  money  but  with  much  faith  and  willingness  to 
work ;  how  he  soon  recommended  himself  to  General 
Armstrong  by  his  faithfulness,  both  in  the  janitor's 
work  he  undertook  and  in  his  studies;  how  he  de- 
voured books ;  how,  after  leaving  Hampton,  he  went 
down  to  Tuskegee,  Alabama,  and  opened  a  school  of 
eight  or  ten  negro  children  in  a  Baptist  Meeting 
House — the  house  is  still  shown  in  the  midst  of  the 
big  buildings  of  Tuskegee;  how  he  built  from  this 
foundation  one  of  the  greatest  universities  in  the 
world,  raised  many  millions  of  dollars  from  the 
American  peopl^and  introduced  into  education  the 
habit  of  making  the  work  done  the  means  of  educa- 
tion (all  the  buildings  of  Tuskegee,  even  the  beauti- 
ful Carnegie  Library,  were  built  by  the  students  as 
part  of  their  curriculum) ;  how  he  became  one  of  the 

189 


190  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

great  orators  of  the  day,  a  writer  of  very  striking 
style,  an  adviser  of  presidents  and  kings,  a  leading  au- 
thority on  education  and  the  foremost  man  of  his  race 
in  all  the  world,  is  one  of  the  romances  of  history. 

My  first  sight  of  Mr.  Washington  was  at  Tuskegee 
itself.  Shortly  after  I  had  come  to  New  York  as 
pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  Church,  I  received  an  invita- 
tion to  attend  the  Twenty-fifth  Anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  Tuskegee  as  the  guest  of  Robert  C. 
Ogden,  for  many  years  president  of  its  board  of 
trustees.  Mr.  Ogden  took  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  people  down  as  his  guests.  We  had  a  special 
train  made  up  entirely  of  stateroom  cars  and  diners 
and  we  lived  in  it  the  whole  week.  When  we 
reached  Tuskegee  the  train  was  run  right  into  the 
grounds  of  the  Institute  on  the  railroad  Mr.  Wash- 
ington had  built,  and  we  slept  in  our  staterooms  and 
had  our  meals  in  the  car,  except  for  a  barbecue 
which  was  held  out  under  the  trees  on  the  school 
grounds.  There  were  a  good  many  eminent  men  on 
this  special  train,  and  there  I  met  for  the  first  time 
Andrew  Carnegie,  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  President 
Eliot,  and  Mr.  Taft  (then  Secretary  of  War,  I 
think) .  The  branch  railroad,  which  Mr.  Washington 
had  built  into  the  Tuskegee  grounds  was  the  occasion 
of  one  of  his  most  famous  jokes.  Speaking,  in  New 
York,  of  the  road  among  other  things  that  they  had 
built  for  themselves,  he  remarked,  "It  is  not  as  long 
as  the  New  York  Central,  but  it  is  just  as  broad." 

We  were  at  Tuskegee  two  whole  days  and  they 
were  crowded  with  interesting  events.  We  were 
driven  all  over  the  great  farms  and  also  to  outlying 


BOOKEE  T.  WASHINGTON  191 

regions  to  see  model  farms  with  their  pretty,  new 
houses  where  graduates  of  Tuskegee  were  at  work. 
We  were  conducted  through  shop  after  shop  where 
we  saw  every  conceivable  trade  and  industry  being 
taught.  There  were  meetings  in  the  great  assembly 
hall  where  we  heard  wonderful  singing  by  the 
students.  There  were  exhibitions  of  the  students' 
work  everywhere,  although  Tuskegee  itself  is  the  best 
exhibition  of  this,  for  every  one  of  the  more  than  one 
hundred  buildings  was  erected  by  the  students,  and 
mostly  from  bricks  and  other  material  made  on  the 
grounds.  On  the  final  evening  there  was  a  meeting 
in  the  big  assembly  hall,  where  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr. 
Carnegie  were  the  chief  speakers.  One  noon  a  bar- 
becue for  the  guests  was  held  in  a  beautiful  grove, 
where  we  ate  to  our  hearts'  content  of  little  pigs 
roasted  on  spits,  and  sweet  potato  pie  from  which 
molasses-like  juice  bubbled  up,  the  potato  being 
of  that  dark  red,  juicy  constituency  that  rarely 
reaches  the  north.  Through  all  these  days  of  cele- 
bration the  hand  of  Principal  Washington  could  be 
felt,  but  he  was  modesty  itself.  He  was  always  the 
most  modest  of  men.  When  he  came  to  New  York, 
which  he  did  for  two  or  three  months  every  winter 
to  raise  funds,  he  slipped  quietly  into  one  of  the 
hotels  near  the  Grand  Central,  and  at  meal  times 
would  often  be  found  by  himself  off  in  a  corner 
of  the  grill  room  seldom  frequented  by  guests.  He 
hired  a  bare  room  in  a  building  near  by  for  a  sort  of 
office.  It  contained  only  a  plain  board  table  and  half 
a  dozen  cheap  kitchen  chairs.  There  was  no  rug  or 
carpet  on  the  floor. 


192  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

During  this  visit  of  the  trustees  and  their  guests 
he  was  always  within  reach,  but  he  never  obtruded 
himself  upon  anybody.  Some  people  felt  that  he 
carried  his  modesty  too  far.  But  he  was  a  very 
sensitive  man  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  some  of  his 
own  race  felt  that  he  was  immune  to  slights  put  upon 
the  coloured  race  and  in  spite  of  his  philosophy  that 
the  coloured  people  would  do  better  to  put  their 
effort  upon  winning  recognition  from  the  white  peo- 
ple by  good  work  rather  than  by  seeking  social  recog- 
nition. He  used  to  say  that  when  the  negro  made 
himself  the  equal  of  the  white  man  by  his  success, 
the  white  man  would  have  to  recognize  that  equality, 
and  he  used  to  remark  shyly  that  in  one  or  two  towns 
where  a  coloured  man  had  become  the  banker  and 
had  the  money  to  lend  there  was  no  trouble  about 
social  recognition.  But  it  was,  of  course,  impossible 
for  Dr.  Washington  to  escape  his  meed  of  praise  at 
the  big  meeting  where  the  speakers  reviewed  the 
first  twenty-five  years  of  the  university.  It  was  at 
this  meeting  that  Mr.  Carnegie  called  down  upon 
his  own  head  the  ire  of  large  numbers  of  white  peo- 
ple, especially  of  the  Southern  States,  by  referring  to 
Mr.  Washington  as  one  of  the  greatest  men  the  South 
had  produced,  and  yet  one  of  my  English  friends 
who  had  visited  Tuskegee,  read  Mr.  Washington's 
books,  heard  him  speak  two  or  three  times,  and 
afterwards  had  met  him  for  a  long  talk  on  economic 
questions,  remarked  to  me:  "Dr.  Washington  is  one 
of  the  few  geniuses  America  has  produced.  I  mean 
by  genius  one  who  originates,  creates,  builds  up  great 
structures  along  new  lines." 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON  193 

It  was  impossible  not  to  be  always  interested  in 
Tuskegee  after  that  visit  and  not  to  be  always  trying 
to  interest  others  in  it.  Furthermore,  it  was  im- 
possible not  to  be  interested  in  Mr.  Washington  him- 
self, and  the  acquaintance  I  made  with  the  great  and 
modest  principal  upon  that  visit  was  continued  to 
the  end.  Every  winter,  when  he  came  to  New  York, 
I  met  him  many  times,  and  heard  him  speak  upon 
many  occasions.  Three  of  these  stand  out  especially 
in  my  memory.  The  first  was  an  evening  service  in 
my  own  church  in  New  York  City.  It  was  my  cus- 
tom when  pastor  of  Pilgrim  Church  to  hold  a  service 
every  year  at  Christmas  time  for  the  consideration  of 
the  subject  of  international  peace.  Mr.  Washington 
was  intensely  interested  in  this  question  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Peace  and  Arbitration  Commission 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches.  On  this  par- 
ticular occasion  I  asked  Mr.  Carnegie  to  preside  and 
he  consented  without  any  urging,  saying  that  he  con- 
sidered it  an  honour  to  preside  where  Booker  Wash- 
ington was  to  speak.  Unfortunately  he  was  called 
to  Washington  to  testify  before  the  Tariff  Commis- 
sion just  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  and,  of  course, 
had  to^go.  It  was  a  great  disappointment.  But 
Chancellor  MacCracken,  of  New  York  University, 
consented  to  take  his  place  and  the  meeting  was  a 
great  success.  The  church  was  crowded  far  beyond 
its  seating  capacity  and  the  occasion  took  upon  itself 
an  added  interest  because  Mr.  Tanner,  the  famous 
artist,  was  also  present.  I  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  we  had  the  greatest  orator  of  the  coloured 
race  and  the  greatest  painter  of  that  race  present 


194  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

together,  and  asked  Mr.  Tanner  to  rise  in  his  seat 
and  receive  our  greetings  as  we  greeted  Mr.  Wash- 
ington. No  one  who  was  present  will  ever  forget 
Dr.  Washington's  address,  especially  one  sentence 
in  it,  namely,  "No  man  can  hold  another  man  down 
in  the  gutter  without  staying  in  the  gutter  with  him ; 
no  race  can  hold  another  race  down  without 
staying  down  there  with  that  race."  It  was  on  this 
occasion  that  he  told  two  of  his  most  famous  stories. 
The  first  was  this:  A  Southern  gentleman  made  a 
contract  with  a  coloured  man  to  furnish  him  with  a 
turkey  every  Saturday.  He  especially  emphasized 
the  fact  that  it  was  to  be  a  tame  turkey,  not  a  wild 
one.  But  one  Sunday  the  family  found  shot  be- 
tween their  teeth  as  they  ate  their  turkey.  The 
white  man  immediately  hunted  up  the  coloured  man 
and  upbraided  him  soundly:  "You  said  you  would 
bring  me  tame  turkeys  only,  Sam,  and  last  Saturday 
you  brought  a  wild  one.  It  was  full  of  shot."  "Lor' 
sake,  Mr.  Green,"  immediately  answered  Sam. 
"That's  all  right.  That  was  sure  'nuff  a  tame 
turkey.  Them  yere  shot  was  meant  for  me."  The 
other  story  was  about  the  coloured  man  who  was 
asked  whether  he  was  an  optimist  or  a  pessimist. 
* '  I  ain  't  neither, ' '  he  answered.  "  I  'm  a  possumist. ' ' 
Mr.  Washington  then  reminded  the  young  people 
that  if  they  remembered  their  Latin  "possum:  I  am 
able, "  it  was  not  a  bad  category  in  which  to  be. 

Another  occasion  stands  out  clearly  in  my  memory. 
It  was  the  dinner  of  the  New  York  Republican  Club 
on  Lincoln's  birthday.  This  dinner  was  an  annual 
affair  and  many  famous  orators  had  spoken  before 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON  195 

the  club  on  Lincoln,  but  I  doubt  if  any  ever  made 
the  impression  Mr.  Washington  made  that  night. 
For  an  hour  he  held  the  large  group  spellbound. 
At  one  time  he  would  have  them  convulsed  with 
laughter,  another  time  he  would  almost  bring  them 
to  their  feet  in  his  eloquent  appeal  for  human  rights. 
One  of  his  stories  is  too  good  to  be  lost.  He  said  that 
the  pastor  of  a  coloured  church  near  Tuskegee  came 
to  him  one  time  and  told  him  his  troubles.  He  told 
him  that  the  previous  year  he  had  received  his  salary 
regularly,  but  that  this  year  he  could  not  get  a  cent 
out  of  his  people.  Then  he  asked  Dr.  Washington  to 
come  over  and  preach  in  the  church  and  urge  them  to 
faithfulness  in  regard  to  paying  him  his  salary,  small 
enough  at  best.  Mr.  Washington  went  over,  and  in 
the  course  of  his  sermon  laid  great  stress  on  this 
particular  remissness.  As  he  spoke  he  noticed  one 
gray-haired  old  deacon  in  the  front  unceasingly 
shaking  his  head  and  grunting  louder  and  louder  as 
he  went  on.  Finally  he  said  to  Deacon  Johnson: 
"What's  wrong  here  anyhow?  Why  don't  you  pay 
up  like  men  ? "  to  which  Deacon  Jones  grunted  back : 
"We  ain't  goin'  to  pay  nuffin,  Mr.  Washington. 
We  done  paid  for  all  them  sermons  last  year." 

Mr.  Washington  was  always  a  faithful  alumnus 
of  Hampton  Institute  and  was  always  as  ready  to 
plead  for  it  as  for  his  own  college.  I  remember  upon 
one  of  the  occasions  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Armstrong  Association  in  New  York  he  was  the  chief 
speaker.  He  said  little  about  Hampton's  work  or 
Hampton's  needs,  but  he  just  took  half  a  dozen 
graduates  of  Hampton  and  showed  what  they  were 


196  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

doing  in  their  own  schools.  As  many  will  remember, 
Mr.  Washington  made  frequent  tours  of  the  Southern 
States,  meeting  the  negroes  at  prearranged  meetings, 
where  many  came  from  miles  around  to  hear  him, 
and  visiting  the  various  schools  and  institutes  for 
negroes.  He  knew  intimately  just  what  every  negro 
leader  in  the  South  was  doing,  and  his  story  of  the 
things  these  graduates  of  Hampton  were  doing  was 
one  of  the  most  effective  addresses  I  ever  heard.  No 
plea  was  necessary  after  that  story.  I  walked  to  the 
hotel  with  him  after  the  meeting  and  he  told  me 
about  his  trip  through  Mississippi.  It  had  been  a 
most  wonderful  experience.  He  felt  more  convinced 
than  ever  that  the  solution  of  the  negro  problem  lay 
entirely  in  education,  especially  in  technical,  indus- 
trial and  agricultural  training.  He  confessed  that 
he  had  not  much  sympathy  with  the  negro  leaders 
who  were  complaining  of  the  social  ostracism  of  the 
negro.  He  thought  that  question  would  take  care 
of  itself,  that  the  negro  should  devote  himself  to  lift- 
ing himself  up  rather  than  to  asking  the  white  race  to 
do  it.  He  was  aware  of  the  unjust  discriminations 
made  against  the  negro.  He  had  suffered  from  them 
himself.  But  he  thought  that  on  the  whole  he  should 
be  thinking  of  his  opportunities  rather  than  of  his 
rights,  that  rights  came  when  people  had  lifted  them- 
selves to  a  point  where  they  could  not  be  refused 
them.  He  had  noticed  everywhere  in  the  South,  the 
difference  in  the  attitude  of  the  white  people  towards 
the  successful  negro  farmer,  banker,  and  mechanic 
from  that  towards  the  slack  and  untrained  man.  I 
asked  him  his  attitude  towards  the  higher  education 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON  197 

of  the  negro.  In  spite  of  all  that  had  been  said  to 
the  contrary  he  was  in  fullest  sympathy  with  it.  He 
thought  that  the  race  needed  college  men  as  leaders, 
teachers,  lawyers,  doctors  and  especially  as  ministers. 
He  thought  the  problem  of  the  negro  minister  was 
the  most  serious  one;  that  the  negro  minister,  espe- 
cially the  rural  pastor,  should  be  trained  in  agri- 
culture as  well  as  in  theology,  and  should  be  able  to 
run  a  model  garden  as  well  as  live  a  model  life.  He 
also  thought  they  should  be  taught  to  emphasize  the 
ethical  side  of  religion  rather  than  the  emotional. 
He  intimated  with  a  laugh  that  he  had  sometimes 
wished  he  could  combine  a  theological  seminary  with 
Tuskegee.  It  struck  me  as  an  idea  worthy  of  very 
serious  consideration  and  two  or  three  times  in  the 
next  few  years  I  brought  it  up.  But  he  always  shook 
his  head:  "No,  my  work  is  along  the  lines  I  have 
begun." 

I  once  told  him  that  I  thought  his  book,  "Up  from 
Slavery,"  was  one  of  the  best  autobiographies  that 
had  been  written  in  many  years,  and  that  I  had  per- 
suaded many  boys  to  read  it,  and  had  given  it  to 
many  boys  in  many  congregations.  He  was  evi- 
dently greatly  pleased.  He  said  he  had  received 
hundreds  of  letters  about  it  from  parents  in  the 
North.  I  still  think  it  is  one  of  the  most  inspiring 
books  for  a  boy.  And  the  volume  of  his  short  chapel 
addresses,  "Character  Building,"  is  delightfully  sug- 
gestive and  practical — just  as  good  for  white  boys 
as  for  coloured  boys.  It  ranges  from  the  possession 
of  a  tooth-brush  as  a  mark  of  civilization  to  prayer 
as  the  greatest  force  in  life. 


XVIII 
JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE 

ON  May  18, 1917, 1  witnessed  the  most  remark- 
able funeral  the  country  has  known  since 
the  funeral  of  Phillips  Brooks  in  Boston, 
when  Copley  Square  could  hardly  hold  the  crowd 
that  came  from  all  over  Boston.  I  approached  St. 
Bartholomew's  Church  from  the  Grand  Central 
Station  at  about  nine  in  the  morning,  and  the  streets 
in  'all  directions  were  one  mass  of  people.  The 
streets  leading  from  the  house  to  the  church  were 
also  lined  with  people.  Only  about  a  thousand  peo- 
ple could  get  into  the  church:  fully  five  thousand 
remained  standing  outside  during  the  service,  which 
was  held  at  half-past  nine.  The  coffin  was  carried 
to  the  Grand  Central  Station  amid  a  throng  of  people 
with  bared  heads.  Joseph  H.  Choate  was  laid  to 
rest  in  the  cemetery  at  beautiful  Stockbridge,  in  the 
Berkshire  Hills,  where  for  many  years  he  had  made 
his  summer  home,  and  which  he  greatly  loved. 

It  was  at  Stockbridge  I  first  saw  him.  I  was  at 
that  time  pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  at 
Lenox — four  miles  away.  His  beautiful  summer 
home  was  on  the  western  side  of  the  hill  that  rises 
directly  out  of  the  little  village.  It  commanded  a 
great  sweep  of  some  of  the  most  charming  scenery  in 
America.  One  of  the  roads  from  Lenox  to  Stock- 
198 


JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE  199 

bridge  ran  directly  by  Ms  house,  and  in  summer  time 
I  frequently  met  him  walking  or  driving  along  this 
road,  or  saw  him  wandering  about  his  large  estate. 
He  was  greatly  beloved  in  Stockbridge  and  identified 
himself  with  every  interest  of  the  village.  For  many 
years  Stockbridge  has  had  a  famous  society,  a  sort 
of  village  improvement  society,  called  the  Laurel  Hill 
Association.  Every  autumn  it  has  an  outdoor  meet- 
ing, always  with  some  famous  speaker.  Here  Mr. 
Choate  always  appeared  and  he  was  the  life  of  the 
community.  I  met  him  first  at  dinner  at  one  of  the 
great  Lenox  houses.  After  the  dinner,  when  the 
men  retired  to  the  smoking  room,  I  had  my  first  real 
contact  with  him.  He  was  the  life  of  the  evening 
and  told  inimitable  stories.  He  was  simply  a  great 
big  boy.  Had  he  not  gone  as  ambassador  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James,  doubtless  I  should  have  had 
the  privilege  of  meeting  him  often  during  those 
happy  Berkshire  days. 

When,  later,  I  came  to  New  York  as  pastor  of 
Pilgrim  Church,  one  of  the  events  to  which  I  looked 
forward  was  to  seeing  him  again.  I  think  it  was  at 
a  dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  that  I  first  saw 
him  after  his  return  from  Great  Britain.  As  an 
ambassador  he  had  been  a  great  success.  His  genial 
ways,  his  ready  wit,  and  his  continual  expression  of 
friendship  for  Great  Britain  had  won  all  hearts. 
He  was  a  great  favourite  with  everybody,  from  the 
King  to  the  bootblack.  He  did  much  to  create 
kindly  feeling  between  the  two  countries,  not  a  small 
part  of  an  ambassador 's  opportunity.  At  this  dinner 
he  told  of  his  life  in  London,  and  it  was  one  of  the 


200  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

most  interesting  after-dinner  addresses  I  have  ever 
heard.  I  was  destined  to  hear  him  make  a  great 
many  after-dinner  addresses  before  he  died  at 
the  age  of  eighty-five,  and  the  evenings  on 
which  he  spoke  still  stand  out  in  a  long  and  con- 
tinuous succession  of  banquets.  He  often  presided 
at  banquets  in  New  York  and  his  toasts  were  always 
most  felicitous.  One  of  these  toasts — given  at  a 
dinner  of  the  Pilgrims  before  my  time — is  so  strik- 
ing that  it  deserves  preservation  in  these  pages.  It 
was  as  follows:  "And,  then,  Women — the  better  half 
of  the  Yankee  world — at  whose  tender  summons  even 
the  stern  Pilgrims  were  ever  ready  to  spring  to  arms, 
and  without  whose  aid  they  never  could  have  achieved 
the  historic  title  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  The  Pil- 
grim Mothers  were  more  devoted  martyrs  than  were 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  because  they  had  to  bear  not 
only  the  same  hardships  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
suffered  but  they  had  to  bear  with  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  besides."  Although  I  did  not  hear  this 
toast  I  heard  many  others.  His  after-dinner  ad- 
dresses should  be  collected  into  a  volume.  Not  only 
would  they  be  highly  entertaining,  but  they  would 
reveal  some  of  the  most  illuminating  comment  upon 
contemporary  movements.  He  was  a  most  gallant 
man,  knightly  in  his  code  of  honour,  and  he  despised 
corruption  in  both  personal  life  and  politics.  In 
these  addresses  he  did  not  hesitate  to  utter  scathing 
words  about  men  of  the  stripe  of  Mr.  Tweed ;  neither 
did  he  fail  to  praise  honourable  men.  Who  will  ever 
forget  his  tribute  to  Eoscoe  Conkling:  "However 
we  may  differ,"  said  Choate,  "one  from  another  or 


JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE  201 

all  of  us  from  him,  we  owe  the  Senator  one  debt  of 
gratitude  for  standing  always  steadfast  and  incor- 
ruptible in  the  halls  of  corruption.  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abednego  won  immortal  glory  for 
passing  one  day  through  the  fiery  furnace,  but  he  has 
been  twenty  years  there,  and  has  come  out  without, 
even  a  smell  of  smoke  upon  his  garments."  Per- 
haps the  most  famous  word  that  will  be  remembered 
from  among  the  many  striking  things  he  uttered  at 
the  dinner  table  was  his  answer  to  the  question: 
"Who  would  you  prefer  to  be  if  you  had  your  life 
to  live  over  again?"  He  hesitated  a  moment,  and 
then,  with  the  most  irresistible  smile  playing  over 
his  countenance,  remarked,  "Mrs.  Choate's  second 
husband."  Needless  to  say  it  captivated  the  company. 
My  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  him  de- 
veloped when  I  began  to  meet  him  on  committees  of 
organizations  which  had  for  their  purpose  the  sub- 
stitution of  judicial  processes  for  war  in  the  settle- 
ment of  international  disputes.  He  was  a  firm  be- 
liever in  the  possibility  of  nations  learning  to  settle 
their  disputes  as  decent  individuals  had  learned  to 
settle  theirs,  in  courts  of  law.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  advocate  the  establishment  of  a  world  court, 
and  not  a  little  of  the  unanimity  of  the  Second 
Hague  Conference  in  its  testimony  in  favour  of  such 
a  court  came  from  his  continual  advocacy  of  the  idea 
upon  the  floor  of  the  Conference.  I  am  glad  that  I 
heard  him  say  these  words,  for  they  will  be  remem- 
bered again,  I  think,  before  long : ' '  Man  is  a  fighting 
animal.  He  has  fought  his  way  to  his  present  ad- 
vanced position,  which  is  the  result  of  the  survival 


202  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

of  the  fittest,  but  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe  that 
by  and  by,  by  the  general  consensus  of  the  public 
opinion  of  the  world,  he  will  be  generally  satisfied 
that  fighting  does  not  pay ;  that  wars  and  the  neces- 
sary preparation  for  war,  as  the  Emperor  of  Kussia 
said  in  his  first  summons  of  The  Hague  Conference, 
are  a  terrible  burden,  fatal  to  the  prosperity  of 
nations  who  indulge  in  them,  and  that  wars  will 
become  less  and  less  frequent  as  time  goes  on. ' '  He 
devoted  much  of  his  time  and  thought  to  the  ad- 
vocacy of  this  world  court  and  of  international 
arbitration.  When  the  great  Carnegie  Endowment 
for  International  Peace  with  its  ten  million  dollars 
was  created,  Mr.  Choate  became  one  of  its  trustees 
and  devoted  much  time  to  it.  At  the  Second  Hague 
Conference,  as  first  delegate  from  the  United  States, 
he  worked  unceasingly  for  these  high  aims,  and  much 
of  what  it  achieved  was  due  to  his  untiring  efforts. 

I  was  fortunate  enough  to  see  him  frequently  at 
the  Second  Hague  Conference.  I  had  been  sent, 
with  Professor  Samuel  T.  Dutton,  as  a  delegate  from 
the  New  York  Peace  Society  to  the  International 
Peace  Congress,  meeting  in  Munich.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  we  visit  The  Hague,  where  the  Second 
Hague  Conference  was  in  session,  on  our  way  to 
Munich  and  carry  the  expression  of  the  desire  upon 
the  part  of  the  peace-workers  of  America  that  the 
Conference  adopt  the  splendid  propositions  being 
laid  before  it  by  our  American  delegates.  Dr. 
Hamilton  Holt,  Dr.  Trueblood,  Mr.  Mead,  and  other 
eminent  Americans  also  visited  The  Hague  with  us. 
The  first  friend  I  met  at  The  Hague  was  William  T. 


JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE  203 

Stead  of  London,  who  had  encamped  there  for  the 
whole  summer,  "To  keep  the  English  delegates 
awake,"  he  said.  Upon  seeing  me,  he  grasped  my 
hand  and  said,  "I  am  glad  you  arrived  to-day,  for 
you  can  see  an  interesting  event.  The  American 
delegates  are  giving  a  reception  to-night  at  the  Palace 
Hotel,  Scheveningen,  to  the  delegates  from  all  the 
other  countries,  and  their  wives."  He  informed 
Mr.  Choate  of  my  arrival,  and  I  immediately  re- 
ceived a  very  cordial  invitation.  It  was  a  most  in- 
teresting event,  and  a  most  significant  one,  ever  to  be 
remembered  by  me,  for  I  saw,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  "all  the  world  in  one  room."  The  official  dele- 
gates of  practically  every  nation  in  the  world  were 
present.  Mr.  Choate  was  splendid.  He  moved  in 
and  out  among  the  guests,  and  had  something  to  say 
to  every  man  and  woman  present.  The  ladies  were 
delighted  with  him.  He  was  irrepressible,  bubbling 
with  fun,  sparkling  with  wit.  He  was  most  gracious 
to  me,  introducing  me  to  great  men  and  charming 
women  from  all  over  Europe  and  South  America. 
Many  of  the  ladies  he  had  met  only  that  night,  but 
he  remembered  them  all.  After  he  had  presented 
me  to  a  few  of  them  he  ran  off  saying,  "Now  have  a 
good  time  and  say  your  brightest  things."  Inas- 
much as  the  conversation  was  all  in  French  it  can 
easily  be  imagined  how  many  bright  things  I  said. 
I  found  an  English  friend  and  together  we  withdrew 
to  a  corner  and  watched  the  interesting  group.  It 
is  doubtful  if  so  many  of  the  world's  greatest  men 
have  been  together  in  one  room  since  that  night. 
The  sessions  of  the  Conference  were  held  daily, 


204          "  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

for  four  months,  in  the  Hall  of  the  Knights.  It  was 
difficult  to  gain  admission,  but  through  Mr.  Choate  's 
kindness  I  was  allowed  to  be  present.  My  wonder 
for  him  increased  at  the  sessions  I  was  permitted  to 
witness.  The  members  of  the  Latin  races  are  much 
more  grandiloquent  in  their  speaking  than  are  we. 
It  was  most  amusing  when  the  practical  business  got 
lost  in  flights  of  oratory  to  see  Mr.  Choate,  with  a 
word,  bring  the  speakers  back  to  earth.  Comte  de 
St.  Maurice,  who  was  political  editor  of  Gil  Bias  at 
this  time,  in  writing  of  the  various  delegates  to  the 
Conference,  had  this  to  say  of  Mr.  Choate:  "He  is 
the  enfant  terrible  of  the  Conference.  He  seems 
aware  neither  of  the  grandeur  of  the  mission  in- 
trusted to  the  delegates  nor  of  the  personal  majesty 
of  their  excellencies.  He  is  barely  a  diplomat.  He 
it  is  who,  with  an  air  of  innocence,  inserts  into  a  dis- 
cussion a  few  cold  words  which  effectively  shatter 
the  grandiloquent  bubbles  of  his  colleagues.  He  it 
is  who  unsmilingly  emphasizes  some  imposing  puer- 
ility. It  is  he,  always  he,  whose  brief  logic  brings 
back  to  earth  again  discussions  which  have  drifted 
into  the  pacific  ether.  What  superb  balloons  has  he 
thus  pricked.  What  pretentious  aeronauts  has  he 
brought  to  earthly  realities." 

Yet  it  was  Mr.  Choate,  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
other  American  delegates,  who  induced  the  Con- 
ference to  take  whatever  radical  and  positive  steps 
it  did  take — the  unanimous  vote  in  favour  of  estab- 
lishing a  world  court,  the  almost  unanimous  vote  in 
favour  of  arbitration  treaties,  the  unanimous  vote  to 
make  the  Conferences  periodic. 


JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE  205 

Some  weeks  after  the  Second  Hague  Conference 
had  closed  and  the  American  delegates  had  returned 
home,  Mr.  Choate  and  General  Horace  Porter  ad- 
dressed a  meeting  of  the  Union  League  Club  in  New 
York,  on  the  results  of  the  four  months'  session  at 
The  Hague.  (The  informal  remarks  of  the  evening 
were  afterwards  expanded  into  two  lectures  which 
he  gave  before  Princeton  University,  and  which  were 
published  by  the  Princeton  University  Press  in  a 
little  volume,  ''The  Two  Hague  Conferences.")  He 
was  in  finest  spirits  that  evening  because  he  felt  that 
a  great  milestone  had  been  passed  in  the  upward 
march  of  human  history.  One  story  which  he  told 
so  aptly  sums  up  the  truth  that  the  diversities  of 
humanity  are  surface  traits,  while  at  heart  humanity 
is  one,  that  I  cannot  forbear  repeating  it.  A  circus 
came  to  a  little  New  England  town  and  an  Irishman 
turned  up  early  in  the  day  and  asked  if  he  could 
not  get  a  job  helping  to  pitch  the  tents  or  feed  the 
animals,  for  the  price  of  admission  to  the  circus. 
The  manager  said,  "I'm  sorry,  Pat,  but  we've  got 
all  the  help  we  need.  But  I'll  tell  you.  The  lion 
died  last  night,  and  what  is  a  circus  without  a  lion ! 
We've  kept  his  pelt  and  head.  Now  if  you'll  just 
get  into  that  pelt,  and  lie  down  as  though  the  lion 
was  asleep  over  in  the  corner  of  the  cage,  I'll  give 
you  two  dollars."  Pat  thought  it  was  an  easy  way 
to  earn  two  dollars  and  accepted  the  offer.  They 
put  him  into  the  skin  and  opened  the  door  of  the 
cage.  He  started  in  but  immediately  jumped  back 
with  a  yell — for  there,  over  in  the  corner  of  the  cage, 
was  a  great  Bengal  tiger  lying  fast  asleep.  They 


206  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

gave  him  a  shove,  but  he  jumped  back  again  yelling, 
"I'll  not  go  into  the  cage  with  that  baste  over  yon- 
der." "Whereupon  the  tiger  lifted  his  head  some- 
what in  surprise  and  said,  "Come  right  in,  Pat,  I'm 
an  Irishman,  too!"  At  heart,  under  all  our  dif- 
ferent skins,  colours,  languages,  national  earmarks, 
racial  traits,  we  are  all  Irishmen — all  one. 

The  last  time  I  saw  Mr.  Choate  was  when  he  acted 
as  host  to  Mr.  Balfour  when  the  visiting  English 
Commission  was  in  New  York.  He  was  with  Mr. 
Balfour  almost  all  the  time,  and  spoke  three  or  four 
times  a  day  at  various  functions.  The  strain  was 
too  much  for  him  and  he  passed  quietly  away  while 
Mr.  Balfour  was  yet  here.  The  last  time  he  and 
Mr.  Balfour  were  together  was  on  Sunday,  May 
sixth,  at  the  great  service  in  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
John  the  Divine  in  honour  of  the  distinguished 
visitors.  The  last  words  he  said  to  Mr.  Balfour 
were,  "Good-bye.  I  hope  that  the  next  time  we 
meet  it  will  be  to  celebrate  the  victory." 


XIX 

CHARLES  WAGNER 

THE  report  of  the  sudden  death  of  Pastor 
Charles  Wagner,  of  Paris,  that  knight  of 
the  spirit,  stirred  many  recollections  in 
American  breasts.  It  came  just  as  Pastor  Wagner 
received  an  invitation  from  the  National  Com- 
mittee on  the  Moral  Aims  of  the  War  to  come 
to  America.  He  could  not  accept  the  invitation  be- 
cause the  hand  of  disease  was  already  upon  him  and 
because  he  felt  that  France  needed  him  in  these 
critical  hours.  But  he  sent  a  letter  to  America  con- 
taining the  substance  of  the  message  he  would  have 
uttered  had  he  come.  It  appeared  in  the  American 
papers  about  the  time  he  died,  and  was  almost  his 
last  word.  It  was  a  passionate  plea  for  the  things 
he  had  been  preaching  for  fifty  years — preaching  in 
tones  that  reached  far  beyond  the  confines  of  France. 
There  have  been  few  more  romantic  lives  than 
Pastor  Wagner's.  He  came  from  Alsace-Lorraine 
and  was  brought  up  in  the  German  language  and  the 
Lutheran  faith.  His  father,  who  was  a  pastor,  died 
when  the  boy  was  seven,  and  with  his  mother  he  went 
to  live  with  his  grandparents.  He  attended  the  vil- 
lage school  and  at  an  early  age  he  developed  a 
passionate  love  of  nature.  As  a  youth  he  lived  in 

207 


208  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

the  woods  and  fields  rather  than  in  books.  He  ac- 
quired a  vast  sum  of  information  about  birds,  flowers, 
beasts  and  insects,  and  these  pictures  of  the  outdoor 
world  which  he  made  his  own  in  youth  were  con- 
tinually bursting  into  speech  in  his  sermons  of  later 
years.  This  contact  with  nature  also  had  much  to  do 
with  his  religious  faith.  At  the  same  time  that  the 
Lutheran  pastor  in  the  village  was  instructing  him  in 
the  orthodox  doctrines  there  was  growing  up  in  him 
a  sweet,  simple,  natural  piety,  the  love  of  God  and 
the  love  of  men,  born,  as  he  himself  once  said,  out  of 
this  closeness  to  nature's  heart. 

It  seems  to  have  been  understood  all  along  that  the 
boy  was  destined  for  the  ministry.  At  fourteen  his 
guardians  sent  him  to  Paris  to  study  theology  under 
Pastor  Kulm,  a  Lutheran  minister,  and  author  of  a 
well-known  ' '  Life  of  Luther. ' '  Pastor  Wagner  knew 
scarcely  any  French,  but  he  worked  hard  and  soon 
entered  the  Sorbonne,  from  which  he  received  his 
degree  of  B.  A.  He  then  went  to  the  University  of 
Strasbourg,  where  he  remained  until  1875.  He  was 
still  only  twenty-three,  but  he  had  seen  the  great 
war  and  he  had  seen  his  fatherland  annexed  to  Ger- 
many. While  the  war  was  surging  around  him  the 
two  faiths  he  had  inherited  from  childhood,  the  faith 
that  he  had  been  taught  by  the  Lutheran  pastor,  the 
other  that  had  instinctively  come  to  him  from  his 
nearness  to  nature,  were  battling  within  him.  Out 
of  this  conflict  was  born  the  large,  liberal  faith  that 
filled  him  with  joy  and  contentment,  and  which  he 
was  to  preach  in  Paris  for  many  years,  to  bring  to 
America,  and  to  send  to  thousands  of  souls  in  his 


CHAELES  WAGNEE  209 

several  books.  After  a  further  short  period  of  study 
at  Gottingen  and  a  visit  to  his  childhood  home — 
where  he  saw  the  results  of  the  Great  War — he  be- 
came the  assistant  of  the  aged  pastor,  Nessler  de  Bar, 
near  the  frontier.  Here  he  preached  regularly  in 
German,  but  being  near  France,  he  became  interested 
in  the  French  language.  He  began  the  study  of 
French,  and  was  drawn  more  and  more  towards 
the  French  people,  with  their  passionate  love  of  free- 
dom and  their  idealism.  He  accepted  a  position  in 
Remiremont,  in  the  French  Vosges.  But  he  soon 
found  his  field  of  labour  too  small,  and  he  suddenly 
threw  up  everything,  made  the  great  venture,  and 
departed  for  Paris. 

After  a  while  he  found  a  field  of  labour.  There 
was  a  small  church,  among  the  working  people,  where 
the  Liberal  preacher,  Coqueral,  had  laboured.  The 
parish  was  practically  a  mission  field,  and  challenged 
the  best  within  him.  The  first  things  he  did  were 
to  open  a  Sunday  school  and  begin  a  course  of  Sun- 
day evening  lectures.  Some  friends  who  heard  these 
lectures  persuaded  him  to  begin  a  series  of  morning 
sermons  in  a  little  up-stairs  room  in  the  Eue  des 
Arquebusiers,  where  many  young  men  lived.  The 
work  grew  rapidly  and  he  soon  had  a  considerable 
congregation  of  young  men  gathered  about  him. 
After  a  while  they  were  forced  to  move  to  the  large 
hall  on  the  Boulevard  Beaumarchais,  where  his  great 
life-work  was  accomplished.  This  was  destined  to 
become  the  center  of  one  of  the  most  influential 
movements  of  modern  Paris. 

Young  men  gathered  about  him,  not  only  to  listen, 


210  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

but  to  work.  He  became  the  great  friend  and  leader 
of  the  aspiring  youth  of  Paris.  He  published  his 
book  "Youth"  at  this  time,  and  it  brought  more 
young  men  to  him.  An  organization  was  effected, 
"The  Union  for  Moral  Action,"  based  upon  no  creed 
except  that  of  service.  It  established  working  men's 
circles  and  popular  universities.  To-day  there  are 
twenty  of  these  popular  universities  in  Paris  and 
over  one  hundred  in  Prance.  He  also  organized  a 
society  of  young  men  and  one  of  young  women,  with 
which  he  discussed  the  problems  of  the  day.  One 
after  another  books  came  from  his  pen  which  at- 
tracted wide  attention.  The  titles  were  such  as  these : 
"Courage,"  "Along  the  Road,"  "Around  the 
Hearth-stone,"  "Justice,"  "Be  a  Man"  and  "The 
Simple  Life."  This  last  book  was  translated  into 
English.  It  soon  found  an  American  audience. 
One  of  the  first  Americans  to  be  moved  by  it  was 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  praised  it  in  public  on  two  occasions  and 
then  everybody  began  reading  it.  It  was  this  book 
that  opened  the  way  for  Pastor  Wagner's  visit  to 
America.  Let  me  quote  here  some  words  he  uttered 
to  Miss  King,  who  wrote  the  introduction  to  the 
English  translation  of  "The  Simple  Life."  They 
sum  up  splendidly  his  attitude  towards  religion  and 
life: 

"It  has  been  given  to  me  to  be  able  to  combine 
harmoniously  in  my  soul  many  forces,  hostile  in 
appearance,  but  fundamentally  united  into  one 
solidarity.  I  have  lived  with  rich  and  poor,  wise 
and  ignorant,  city  folks  and  peasants,  Germans  and 


CHAELES  WAGNEE  211 

French,  believers  and  atheists,  the  champions  of  the 
past  and  the  champions  of  the  present,  and  I  have 
understood  and  loved  them  all.  I  love  life  and 
humanity  under  all  their  wholesome,  sincere  forms, 
in  all  their  griefs  and  their  hopes,  and  even  in  all 
the  tempests  of  thought  and  deed.  Homo  sum: 
humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto.  Thus  I  have 
learned  to  love  the  blind  bard  of  Tios  with  a  love 
that  grows  daily  more  ardent.  I  am  a  pagan  and 
an  ancient,  a  child  of  nature  come  to  God  through 
Christ.  I  belong  not  to  the  sad  but  to  the  joyous 
Christ.  I  follow  Christ  because  I  have  heard  Him 
speak  the  natural  language — the  language  of  hu- 
manity— and  because  I  have  heard  beating  in  His 
heart  the  heart  of  all.  Therefore  He  is  not  for  me 
a  person  who  was  and  is  no  longer,  but  the  eternal 
contemporary  of  us  all,  the  symbol  of  a  spirit  which 
rests  with  us  always.  The  visible  truths  of  the 
human  and  divine  evangel  rise  every  morning  on  my 
horizon  like  new  luminaries,  and  I  salute  and  adore 
them  with  the  same  admiration  as  if  I  were  seeing 
them  every  morning  for  the  first  time.  Miracles, 
dogmas,  forms  which  worried  me  at  first  worry  me 
no  longer.  Across  them  all  I  see  only  one  thing — 
man  in  search  of  God,  God  in  search  of  man." 

It  was  shortly  after  "The  Simple  Life"  made  such 
a  sensation  in  1906  that  Pastor  Wagner  was  invited 
to  America.  It  was  Mr.  John  Wanamaker  who  ex- 
tended the  invitation  and  who  mapped  out  his  Amer- 
ican journey  for  him.  He  hesitated  a  long  time  be- 
fore accepting  the  invitation.  He  could  not  speak 
English  and  he  felt  his  work  needed  him  in  Paris* 


212  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

There  was  his  family  also,  and  he  was  a  great  home 
man.  But  finally  his  family  and  his  congregation 
also  felt  that  he  ought  to  accept  the  invitation. 
After  he  had  accepted  there  came  the  question  of 
language.  He  could,  of  course,  make  all  his  ad- 
dresses in  French  and  use  an  interpreter.  This  he 
could  not  abide  and  he  determined  to  learn  the  Eng- 
lish language.  He  accomplished  the  marvellous  task 
of  acquiring  a  new  language  in  a  few  weeks.  Those 
of  us  who  heard  him  speak  while  he  was  in  America 
could  hardly  believe  that  he  had  not  been  speaking 
English  all  his  life,  so  well  did  he  make  addresses  in 
our  tongue.  He  has  told  the  story  in  "My  Impres- 
sions of  America,"  and  it  is  worth  reading  by  all 
those  who  wish  to  acquire  a  modern  tongue.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  he  dropped  everything  else  but  this 
study,  and  gave  the  whole  of  every  day  to  it  under 
the  tutelage  of  a  good  teacher.  (President  William 
R.  Harper  used  to  say  that  he  could  give  any  man 
of  ordinary  intelligence  a  working  knowledge  of 
Hebrew  in  sixteen  days,  if  the  man  would  put  eight 
hours  a  day  on  the  task.) 

I  first  met  Pastor  Wagner  directly  after  his  ar- 
rival in  America.  A  little  group  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
men  were  invited  to  meet  him  at  dinner  in  the  rooms 
of  the  Aldine  Club,  New  York.  If  I  remember 
rightly  the  dinner  was  given  by  the  editors  of  The 
Outlook.  At  each  plate  was  an  autographed 
copy  of  "The  Simple  Life"  with  the  date  of  the 
dinner.  (My  copy  lies  before  me  as  I  write.)  In 
the  course  of  the  dinner  several  of  those  present,  in- 
troduced by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  paid  tribute  to  the 


CHAELES  WAGNEE  213 

distinguished  guest.  Finally  Pastor  Wagner  him- 
self was  introduced.  He  was  a  bit  nervous  at  first, 
and  no  wonder,  for  this  was,  I  think,  the  first  time 
he  had  ever  made  an  address  in  English.  But  the 
nervousness  passed  away  in  a  moment,  and,  with  a 
remarkable  command  of  our  language,  he  spoke 
fluently  and  eloquently  for  twenty  minutes.  He  was 
an  interesting  figure.  He  had  the  sturdy  build  of  a 
man  born  and  reared  in  the  country.  His  face  was 
massive,  his  brow  commanding,  and  his  voice,  as  be- 
came his  body,  strong  and  resonant.  His  hands 
were  large,  and  the  fist,  often  clenched  while  he 
was  speaking,  massive.  He  was  hardy,  and  loved 
the  elements.  (Nothing  would  ever  induce  him  to 
wear  gloves.)  There  was  nothing  French  in  his  ap- 
pearance; rather,  he  resembled  the  mountaineers 
from  whom  he  was  descended. 

His  address  was  the  story  of  how  he  came  to  write 
"The  Simple  Life."  The  longer  he  lived  and 
worked  in  Paris  the  more  the  complexity  of  our 
modern  life  grew  upon  him.  He  saw  that  it  was 
this  complexity,  this  entanglement  in  a  thousand 
things,  that  was  the  cause  of  most  of  the  unrest  and 
misery  that  everywhere  pervaded  society,  and  it  was 
this  complexity  that  prevented  men  from  reaching 
that  calm,  reposeful  state  of  being,  that  fine,  out- 
standing character  he  had  known  in  the  country 
town  of  his  youth.  Things  had  assumed  the  mastery 
in  place  of  the  soul.  Man  was  the  slave  of  things 
and  of  conventions.  "From  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
in  his  needs  as  in  his  pleasures,  in  his  conception  of 
the  world  and  of  himself,  the  man  of  modern  times 


214  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

straggles  through  a  maze  of  endless  complication. 
Nothing  is  simple  any  longer;  neither  thought  nor 
action ;  not  pleasure,  not  even  dying.  With  our  own 
hands  we  have  added  to  existence  a  train  of  hard- 
ships, and  lopped  off  many  a  gratification.  I  believed 
that  thousands  of  our  fellow  men,  suffering  the 
consequences  of  a  too  artificial  life,  would  be  grateful 
if  I  tried  to  give  expression  to  their  discontent,  and 
to  justify  the  regret  for  naturalness  which  vaguely 
oppresses  them." 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  three  or  four 
times  while  he  remained  in  New  York,  and  I  also 
met  him  for  a  while  just  before  his  return  to  France. 
Of  course,  I  took  occasion  in  this  last  meeting  to  ask 
him  his  impressions  of  America.  He  had  a  fine  sense 
of  humour  and  smilingly  replied  that  he  had  seen 
only  "the  banquet  side"  of  American  life.  Then 
speaking  seriously  he  said  that  the  chief  memory  of 
America  he  would  take  back  to  France  would  be  the 
beautiful  homes  where  he  had  been  a  guest.  He  had 
been  in  every  kind  of  home:  Mr.  Wanamaker's 
palatial  home  near  Philadelphia;  Lyman  Abbott's 
book-lined  home  at  Cornwall-on-the-Hudson ;  the 
humbler  homes  of  business  men  and  ministers  in  the 
West,  all  were  to  him  sweet  and  beautiful,  and  dis- 
tinctively American.  In  every  town  where  he  had 
lectured  he  had  been  entertained  in  some  home.  He 
had  seen  little  of  our  great  hotels — and  was  not  much 
interested  in  them.  The  other  thing  that  impressed 
him  was  the  genuine  interest  in  religion  that  he 
found  everywhere,  and  especially  the  growing 
emphasis  on  the  fundamental  realities  of  faith.  He 


CHAELES  WAGNEE  215 

felt  that  Christian  unity  was  inevitable,  sooner  or 
later.  The  divergencies  came  when  men  talked  of 
rites,  of  orders,  of  interpretations  of  texts.  But  men 
were  not  talking  of  those  things  now.  They  were 
talking  of  trust  in  God,  discipleship  and  the  practice 
of  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  of  brotherhood,  of  the 
establishing  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  the  earth.  On 
these  things  all  denominations  were  agreed,  and  as 
they  became  more  and  more  engrossed  in  these  things 
and  cooperatively  laboured  for  them,  as  everywhere 
he  found  them  doing,  more  and  more  they  would  be- 
come one. 

I  heard  him  give  one  lecture  in  New  York.  Every- 
where he  went  he  had  great  audiences.  The  book 
had  advertised  him.  It  was  issued  in  a  five-cent 
edition  hawked  by  newsboys  on  the  streets  of  New 
York.  I  saw  hundreds  of  them  sold.  The  lecture  I 
attended  was  crowded.  The  speaker  was  quite  moved 
by  the  crowd  that  had  come  to  hear  him.  He  gave 
them  the  first  chapter  of  "The  Simple  Life,"  ''Our 
Complex  Life."  It  is  a  great  chapter  and  every- 
body knows  it  is  true.  After  the  lecture  scores 
pressed  forward  to  clasp  hands  with  this  great,  sin- 
cere man.  I  think  the  fact  that  one  had  come  from 
France,  a  country  which  to  the  average,  unread 
American,  was  the  home  of  everything  except  faith, 
to  persuade  Americans  to  return  to  the  simple  life 
of  Jesus,  as  far  as  possible,  had  much  to  do  with 
deepening  the  impression  the  lecturer  made.  His 
closing  words  are  so  worthy  of  constant  reading  that 
I  will  quote  them  in  these  memories  of  a  great,  sin- 
cere, lovable  soul : 


216  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

>s 

"When  one  passes  in  review  the  individual  causes 
that  disturb  and  complicate  our  social  life,  by  what- 
ever names  they  are  designated — and  their  list  would 
be  long — they  all  lead  back  to  one  general  cause, 
which  is  this :  the  confusion  of  the  secondary  with  the 
essential.  Material  comfort,  education,  liberty,  the 
whole  of  civilization — these  things  constitute  the 
frame  of  the  picture ;  but  the  frame  no  more  makes 
the  picture  than  the  frock  the  monk  or  the  uniform 
the  soldier.  Here  the  picture  is  man,  and  man  with 
his  most  intimate  possessions — namely,  his  con- 
science, his  character  and  his  will.  And  while  we 
have  been  elaborating  and  garnishing  the  frame  we 
have  forgotten,  neglected,  disfigured  the  picture. 
Thus  are  we  loaded  with  external  good,  and  miserable 
in  spiritual  life ;  we  have  in  abundance  that  which,  if 
must  be,  we  can  go  without,  and  are  infinitely  poor 
in  the  one  thing  needful.  And  when  the  depth  of 
our  being  is  stirred,  with  its  need  of  loving,  aspiring, 
fulfilling  its  destiny,  it  feels  the  anguish  of  one 
buried  alive — is  smothered  under  the  mass  of  sec- 
ondary things  that  weigh  it  down  and  deprive  it  of 
light  and  air. 

"We  must  search  out,  set  free,  restore  to  honour 
the  true  life,  assign  things  to  their  proper  places, 
and  remember  that  the  center  of  human  progress  is 
moral  growth.  What  is  a  good  lamp  ?  It  is  not  the 
most  elaborate,  the  finest  wrought,  that  of  the  most 
precious  metal.  A  good  lamp  is  a  lamp  that  gives 
good  light.  And  so  also  we  are  men  and  citizens, 
not  by  reason  of  the  number  of  our  goods  and  the 
pleasures  we  procure  for  ourselves,  not  through  our 


CHAELES  WAGNEE  217 

intellectual  and  artistic  culture,  nor  because  of  the 
honours  and  independence  we  enjoy;  but  by  virtue 
of  the  strength  of  our  moral  fiber.  And  this  is  not  a 
truth  of  to-day,  but  a  truth  of  all  times. 

"At  no  epoch  have  the  exterior  conditions  which 
man  has  made  for  himself  by  his  industry  or  his 
knowledge  been  able  to  exempt  him  from  care  for 
the  state  of  his  inner  life.  The  face  of  the  world 
alters  around  us,  its  intellectual  and  material  factors 
vary;  and  no  one  can  arrest  these  changes,  whose 
suddenness  is  sometimes  not  short  of  perilous.  But 
the  important  thing  is  that  at  the  center  of  shifting 
circumstances  man  should  remain  man,  live  his  life, 
make  towards  his  goal.  And  whatever  be  his  road, 
to  make  towards  his  goal,  the  traveller  must  not  lose 
himself  in  crossways,  nor  hamper  his  movements 
with  useless  burdens.  Let  him  heed  well  his  direc- 
tion and  forces,  and  keep  good  faith;  and  that  he 
may  the  better  devote  himself  to  the  essential — which 
is  to  progress — at  whatever  sacrifice,  let  him  simplify 
his  baggage." 


XX 

• 

WASHINGTON  GLADDEN 

THE  news  in  the  morning  papers  of  July 
second  of  the  death  of  Washington  Glad- 
den at  the  age  of  eighty-two  must  have 
awakened  in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  Americans 
many  tender  memories  of  a  great,  sweet,  gentle  soul 
as  well  as  of  one  of  the  most  prophetic  minds  Amer- 
ica has  known  during  the  last  fifty  years.  In  all 
departments  of  thought  he  was  a  great  leader,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  was  a  great  soul,  one  of  those  big, 
friendly  men  in  whom  everybody  had  absolute  con- 
fidence and  who  made  friends  and  disciples  through- 
out the  land.  Hfcwas  a  pioneer  in  three  fields,  that 
of  the  new  Biblical  scholarship,  that  of  the  socializ- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  and  that  of  liberal  theology.  His 
books  were  read  around  the  world.  There  were 
several  of  them  on  all  these  subjects,  and  they  con- 
tinued to  appear  almost  up  to  the  date  of  his  depar- 
ture. 

The  story  of  his  life  is  the  story  of  many  self-made 
Americans  and  is  full  of  romance,  struggle,  the  bat- 
tle for  truth  and  freedom,  growing  power,  success, 
a  high  place  among  the  leaders  of  the  nation.  His 
autobiography,  published  in  1909  (Houghton 
218 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  219 

Mifflin  Co.)  under  the  title  "Kecollections"  is  a 
good  book  to  put  into  the  hands  of  any  American 
youth.  His  father  was  a  school-teacher.  He  died 
while  Washington  was  but  a  boy,  and  the  mother 
carried  on  his  work  for  a  while.  Then  she  went  to 
her  mother's  home  at  Owego,  Washington  being 
received  into  his  uncle's  home.  With  the  exception 
of  a  year's  visit  to  his  grandfather,  he  spent  nine 
years  with  his  uncle  on  a  farm  near  Owego.  There 
he  worked  on  the  farm  and  attended  the  district 
school.  But,  as  is  always  the  case  with  boys  of  this 
sort,  he  began  to  devour  books,  and  these  books 
opened  windows  into  the  great  worlds  of  the  past 
and  the  worlds  of  thought  and  action  out  beyond  the 
farm.  He  continually  read  the  Bible  and  felt  its 
spell  and  greatness.  He  walked  under  the  stars  and 
thought  on  the  meaning  of  life  and  religion.  Of 
course  it  was  impossible  to  chain  up  a  boy  of  this 
sort  long  and  at  sixteen,  with  his* good  uncle's 
encouragement,  he  left  the  farm^nd  entered  the 
office  of  the  Owego  Gazette  as  the  "boy."  (This 
was  prophetic  of  his  connection  with  various  journals 
later  in  his  life.  He  was  one  of  the  editors  of  The 
Independent  for  a  while  and  was  on  the  editorial 
staff  of  The  Christian  Work  when  he  died.)  These 
were  stormy  times  and  the  boy  became  immersed  in 
politics.  But  the  religious  instinct  claimed  him 
again.  He  joined  the  Church  and  decided  to  enter 
the  ministry.  The  nature  of  the  "call"  he  heard  is 
interesting  because  so  prophetic  of  his  future  min- 
istry. He  says  of  it :  "It  was  not  an  individualistic 
pietism  that  appealed  to  me;  it  was  a  religion  that 


220  THE  ONE  GEEAT  SOCIETY 

laid  hold  upon  life  with  both  hands,  and  proposed, 
first  and  foremost,  to  realize  the  Kingdom  of  God  in 
this  world.  I  do  not  think  that  any  other  outlook 
upon  the  work  would  have  attracted  me."  His  life- 
work  could  well  be  summed  up  as  devoted  to  building 
the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world. 

He  fitted  for  college  in  the  village  academy  and  in 
1856  entered  the  Sophomore  class  of  Williams  Col- 
lege. Here  he  came  under  the  influence  of  such 
men  as  Mark  Hopkins  and  John  Bascom,  and  also 
under  the  spell  of  the  beautiful  Berkshire  Hills. 
Here  he  wrote  the  words  and  music  of  a  song,  ' '  The 
mountains,  the  mountains,"  which  became  the  col- 
lege song  at  once  and  has  remained  so  ever  since. 
After  college  he  returned  to  Owego  as  a  teacher. 
He  drifted  into  the  ministry  while  teaching.  The 
pastor  of  the  Owego  Congregational  Church,  Mose 
Coit  Tyler,  and  he  became  great  friends,  and  one 
day  Gladden  preached  for  him.  Then  he  secured  a 
license  to  preach,  hoping  to  exercise  his  gifts  in  the 
district  schools  and  rural  churches.  But  soon  he 
was  called  to  assist  in  some  revival  work  in  Le 
Raysville.  Here  for  eight  weeks  he  preached  three 
or  four  times  a  week,  and  with  such  success  that  he 
soon  received  a  call  to  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

The  young  preacher  reached  New  York  just  as  the 
great  storm  broke  and  the  nation  was  rent  on  the 
question  of  slavery.  Mr.  Beecher  was  thundering 
against  compromise,  and  the  atmosphere  of  New 
York  was  charged  with  excitement.  Meantime  Mr. 
Gladden  accepted  a  call  in  New  York  City.  In  1866 
he  went  to  the  prosperous  Congregational  Church  in 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  221 

North  Adams.  Here  he  exercised  a  powerful  min- 
istry until  1871,  when  he  accepted  an  invitation  to 
become  the  religious  editor  of  The  Independent.  He 
returned  to  New  York  and  engaged  in  editorial  work 
until  1879,  at  which  time  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
North  Congregational  Church  at  Springfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts. Here  he  remained  until  1882,  when  he 
became  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of 
Columbus,  Ohio,  which  he  served  for  over  thirty 
years. 

He  was  a  great  power  in  Columbus,  but  his  min- 
istry soon  began  to  exercise  a  national  influence.  He 
had  already  written  several  books  when  he  went  to 
Columbus,  but  the  first  book  to  become  widely  known 
was  "Who  Wrote  the  Bible?"  published  in  1893. 
The  results  of  the  Higher  Criticism  were  just  being 
disseminated  in  America  and  thousands  of  good  peo- 
ple were  greatly  disturbed  over  the  new  views  of  the 
Bible.  Dr.  Gladden  wrote  this  book  in  popular  vein 
to  give  to  the  people  the  real  results  of  these  studies 
and  to  show  to  the  people  that  it  was  constructive  in 
its  aim,  and  that,  instead  of  detracting  from  the 
value  of  the  Bible  as  a  medium  of  divine  revelation, 
it  added  to  its  value.  The  book,  of  course,  was 
vigorously  attacked  from  all  conservative  quarters, 
but  it  proved  of  great  help  to  thousands  of  earnest 
and  thoughtful  people  and  saved  many  to  the  faith. 
In  1897  Dr.  Gladden  came  back  to  the  same  subject 
and  wrote  a  book  which  became  equally  popular  on 
the  "Seven  Puzzling  Bible  Books." 

He  had  not  been  in  Columbus  long  before  he  was 
invited  to  deliver  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  on 


222  THE  ONE  GREAT  SOCIETY 

Preaching,  before  the  Yale  Divinity  School.  This 
course  of  lectures,  published  in  1893  under  the  title 
"Tools  and  the  Man,"  revealed  Dr.  Gladden  as  one 
of  the  prophets  of  the  Social  Gospel,  and  for  several 
years  he  and  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  shared  the  leadership 
of  the  Church  in  its  new  vision  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  It  was  the  task  of  the  Church  to  bring  the 
whole  of  civilization  under  the  sway  of  the  Gospel 
as  well  as  to  save  individuals.  Book  after  book  ap- 
peared calling  the  churches  to  the  new  task  of 
establishing  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth. 
"Social  Facts  and  Forces"  and  "Social  Salvation" 
fell  upon  the  ears  of  the  young  ministers  almost  as  a 
new  Gospel.  Disciples  arose  all  over  the  nation  and 
Dr.  Gladden  himself  was  called  to  all  cities  to  de- 
liver his  message  in  person,  at  the  same  time  he 
was  sharing  with  Abbott,  Hunger,  Smyth  and  Whi- 
ton  the  leadership  in  what  was  called  the  "New 
Theology"  movement.  Such  books  as  "Ruling 
Ideas  of  the  Present  Age"  and  "How  Much  Is  Left 
of  the  Old  Doctrines"  were  widely  read  and  exer- 
cised a  great  formative  influence  upon  the  thinking 
people  of  the  nation.  He  continued  to  write  books 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  In  1915  The  Church 
Peace  Union  offered  a  prize  of  $1,000  for  the  best 
book  constructively  dealing  with  the  question  of  war 
and  peace.  Dr.  Gladden  submitted  a  manuscript, 
and  the  three  judges,  Chancellor  Emeritus  Henry 
Mitchell  MacCracken,  Rev.  Sidney  L.  Gulick  and 
Philip  I.  Roberts,  unanimously  awarded  him  the 
prize.  The  book  was  published  under  the  title  ' '  The 
Forks  of  the  Road,"  and  set  forth  many  of  the 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  223 

ideals  that  are  being  urged  now  as  the  necessary 
outcome  of  the  present  conflict.  During  the  last 
few  years  books  came  from  Dr.  Gladden 's  pen  every 
year.  They  deal  with  all  phases  of  life,  industrial, 
international,  literary  and  religious.  Every  sphere 
of  life  belonged  to  God,  was  Dr.  Gladden 's  belief,  and 
he  wished  to  bring  all  under  His  sway.  He  worked 
until  the  end  and  was  just  bringing  out  a  volume 
of  poems  when  death  came. 

Dr.  Gladden  was  greatly  interested  in  the  activities 
of  his  own  denomination,  whose  freedom  he  loved, 
and  was  intimately  related  to  its  various  organiza- 
tions. He  was  Moderator  of  the  National  Council 
for  one  term  and  during  that  time  visited  many  of 
the  churches,  everywhere  carrying  his  thoughtful, 
prophetic  message  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


Printed  in  tht  United  Statts  of  America 


